The boredom of gangs in Glasgow.

Glasgow is notorious for its gang and violent culture. This view of the city stretches as far back as the late 1800s and more recently the story of Glasgow gang ‘The Billy Boys’ even featured in the popular TV series, ‘Peaky Blinders’. Infamous Glasgow gangland figures have also been portrayed in films such as ‘The Wee Man’ which tells the story of former underworld figure Paul Ferris, who is played by Martin Compston. A recent study by Johanne Miller of the University of the West of Scotland published in The British Journal of Criminology, suggests gangs in Glasgow today are feeling the effects of boredom. The large scale survey on Glasgow gangs represented 21 different gangs across the city. Up to 60 gang members were interviewed (20 agreed to in-depth interviews) to understand the role of boredom in relation to gang activity and membership.

The Scottish True Crime Blog is a free, semi regular newsletter covering Scottish based criminological research as well as investigations, insight and analysis of some well known and lesser known, Scottish crime cases. Subscribe here for free to ensure the latest articles are delivered directly to your inbox!

Gang members were recruited for participation through intervention programmes along with street work, youth clubs and employability initiatives. Participants were aged between 12 and 25 and the sample was made up of 53 males and 7 females who were 95% white, Scottish. A definition for the Glasgow gang is provided based on a dangerous history of territorial violence in parts of the city that often feel the effects of severe deprivation and poverty:

A regenerating, self-aware group of young people (majority male) aged 10–30 that emerge from play groups, are socialised via the streets, and engage in territorial violence. The groups originate in low income, urbanised areas. They have attachment to territory; the area will historically be involved in territorial violence and have a name and area associated with it.

According to the research, the relationship between boredom and gang membership is well established within criminology but little is understood about it’s relationship with violence. Previous research has already correlated boredom with actions such as drug taking, risk taking, alcohol consumption, thrill seeking and troublemaking…