Glasgow gangs

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33277, 14 July 1973, Page 10

Glasgow gangs

A Glasgow Gang Observed. By James Patrick. Eyre Methuen. 256 pp. Bibliography and index.

James Patrick is a brave man. From October 1966 to January 1967 he was associated with a juvenile gang in Glasgow at the invitation of its leader. He was lucky to avoid serious injury. The problem of gangs in Glasgow has grown up over more than a century and is clearly attributable to the foul conditions many Glaswegians have to subsist in. The crumbling sandstone houses, overcrowded and with the barest minimum of washing and toilet facilities, breed a violent attitude to life that is often expressed in seemingly senseless and brutal acts against innocent people. Young people from the old slums and from the modern “housing developments" —often devoid of any entertainment or recreational facilities — band together into loose-knit gangs to wander rhe streets and attack any rival gang that might chance by. James Patrick was a teacher at an approved school when Tim, the leader of the “Young Team.” half-invited, halfchallenged him to join the gang. Patrick admits that he knew nothing at all of what went on within gangs—in common with most of his colleagues, who nevertheless are expected to help transform errant boys into “good citizens” — and in a spirit of scientific investigation accepted Tim’s challenge. As a native Glaswegian, Patrick was able to surmount the first problem: language. But this he did only with difficulty as the dialect and slang used by the boys would defy translation by most English-speaking people. Even when he came to understand what they were saying he was not much better off because the first thing a gang member learns is never to tell the truth. He recounts many examples of exaggeration, usually of a boastful kind, but by careful cross-checking he was able to find the truth about some of the more notorious exploits of the gangs. His accounts of the violence he witnessed are frightening, but the overall impression is of a dreary and unglamorous series of week-ends spent hanging about on street comers or in pubs. Visits to dance halls usually terminated in brawls, with members of the various gangs scattering as the police arrived. The story of his time with the gang Is followed by a series of chapters on theoretical and analytical aspects of the study of gangs, both in Britain and America, with some suggestions for the treatment and prevention of the problem. This is understandably less vivid and compelling than the first part of the book, and, because of the sociological concepts involved, is less easy for the general reader to deal with. For reasons of personal safety. Patrick has delayed publication of this book until now, and even six years after the events he considers it wise to use a pseudonym.