1 / 18

Dr Robert Smith Reader in Entrepreneurship RGU r.smith-a@rgu.ac.uk

Neds, CrimeLords, Businessmen-Gangsters, and Entrepreneurs: Exploring cultural (mis)representations of Scottish Criminals in contemporary criminal biographies. Dr Robert Smith Reader in Entrepreneurship RGU r.smith-a@rgu.ac.uk. Orientating the Research.

cullen
Télécharger la présentation

Dr Robert Smith Reader in Entrepreneurship RGU r.smith-a@rgu.ac.uk

An Image/Link below is provided (as is) to download presentation Download Policy: Content on the Website is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use and may not be sold / licensed / shared on other websites without getting consent from its author. Content is provided to you AS IS for your information and personal use only. Download presentation by click this link. While downloading, if for some reason you are not able to download a presentation, the publisher may have deleted the file from their server. During download, if you can't get a presentation, the file might be deleted by the publisher.

E N D

Presentation Transcript


  1. Neds, CrimeLords, Businessmen-Gangsters, and Entrepreneurs: Exploring cultural (mis)representations of Scottish Criminals in contemporary criminal biographies Dr Robert Smith Reader in Entrepreneurship RGU r.smith-a@rgu.ac.uk

  2. Orientating the Research • This is an atypical study which arose from a call for papers for the conference and was not purposefully designed to gather and dispassionately and scientifically analyse data in a traditional scientific manner. Instead the call triggered an immediate response to author an abstract. • It is based on past and present readings of biographies and novels of Scottish Crime and Enterprise. • Predominantly based on ‘True Crime Genre’ and therefore may be a cultural imagination. • Criminal as entrepreneur (Smith, 2009 / 2013).

  3. Cultural Representations ofCriminality • Urban ‘Clydeside’ bias. • There are very few constructions relating to the remainder and of rural Scotland (Croall et al, 2010).. • Scottish Media Stereotypes. • Godfathers. • CrimeLords. • Businessman-gangsters. • Background Entrepreneur (Mack, 1972). • The ubiquitous ‘Ned’ (Law, 2006). • Hardmen & Hairies (Bryce-Wunder, 2003). • Press / Media / Television / Novels / Biographies / True Crime.

  4. Relevant Literature • The study by Scottish sociologist and criminologist J. A. Mack into organised crime in the Glasgow - ‘The Able Criminal’ (Mack, 1972) posited the notion of the background or backroom operator to denote a stratum of businessmen / gangster / entrepreneur who controlled crime in the Greater Glasgow and central belt areas of Scotland. • Donnelly & Scott (2010) – Policing Scotland. • Croall, Mooney & Munro (2010). • Law, Mooney and Helmes (2010).

  5. Godfathers / CrimeLords • The ‘Godfather’ aka ‘Mr Big’ stereotype: • Walter Norvall. • Arthur Thompson Senior. • The CrimeLord stereotype: • Tam ‘The Licensee’ McGraw. • Jamie ‘The Ice-Man’ Stephenson. • Iain ‘Blink’ McDonald. • There is scope for the two to merge.

  6. Businessman-Gangster • The Businessman-Gangster is a recognised criminal stereotype (Smith, 2003). • Pertinent to Central Belt of Scotland. • It is not a homogenous category and covers a wide degree of different criminal types from the traditional gangster to the white-collar criminal. • The type is categorised visually by the adoption of myopic capitalist imagery in the form of suits, business attire and flash cars (Smith & Anderson, 2003).

  7. The Entrepreneur • Culturally, ‘The Entrepreneur’ is a shadowy figure in Scotland. • The entrepreneur is a much under-represented figure in Scottish Culture • However, one must consider the ‘Background-Entrepreneur’ (Mack, 1972)as a shadowy criminal ‘Mr Fixer’ type persona. • Crucially Mack conducted his research in the Glasgow underworld.

  8. The Ned • Non Educated Delinquents? • Chavs, Scallies, Schemies (Smith & Air, 2012). • The typical environment of the archetypal Scottish Ned is urban. • The setting is urban housing schemes steeped in poverty and social deprivation. • The social construct underpins our very understanding of crime and its policing. • Hardmen & Hairies (Bryce-Wunder, 2003).

  9. Relevant Themes • Cultural representations of Scottish Criminality are socially constructed from depictions in novels, biographies, newspaper articles and fictional television characters. • Media representations of crime (Mawby, 2007). • Clydesideism (McNair, 2007).

  10. Methodology - unveiling • Documentary research (Scott, 1991/2006). • LexisNexis • Content Analysis – to unveil themes and stories. • Particular emphasis on passages relating to enterprise and entrepreneurship. • Revisiting previous readings and understandings in a similar manner to engaging and reengaging with the material compiled via investigative journalistic techniques.

  11. Novels • No Mean City • Easy Money • Inspector Rebus Novels – Ian Rankin • Irvine Welsh Novels on the Scottish underclass • The Cull by Mark Frankland – is a typical as it is set in rural Dumfries-shire. • Collectively, these novels portray a picture book vision of the Scottish criminal as either a businessman/gangster or drink and drug fuelled ned

  12. Newspapers • The newspaper industry and, in particular, investigative journalism has shaped cultural representations of Scottish criminality. • The News of the World – The Scottish Sun and The Daily Record all have a reputation for exposing the activities of Scottish gangsters. • Consider the role of the journalist in authoring the genre of Scottish True Crime Books. • Consider the role of individual journalists such as Reg McKay and David Leslie.

  13. Television • Taggart – There’s been a murder. • The Scottish Playwright Peter McDougall and his plays Just Another Saturday and Down Among the Big Boys feature neds and the businessman/gangster. • River City – the fictional Shieldinch is home to the ned, the crimelord and the businessman/gangster but breaks with tradition in portraying strong women as entrepreneurs. • The shady background entrepreneur is much in play

  14. True Crime Books • Jimmy Boyle – A Sense of Freedom. • True Crime Books portray gang and knife culture. • The Ferris/McKay writing partnership. • David Leslie. • Russell Findlay. • Robert Jeffrey. • Investigative scholaticism. • Sub genre of memoirs of Scottish crime fighters.

  15. The Developing Typology • The Godfather. • The CrimeLord. • The Businessman/Gangster. • The Background Entrepreneur. • The Hard Man. • The Ned. • The Gangster’s Wife.

  16. Findings / Readings • Consideration of the subject of crime and media is not novel (Mawby, 2007). • In Smith (2013) a study of 100 biographies of contemporary British criminals established that a common theme in many of the biographies was an attempt to portray themselves as entrepreneurs. • This is not so overt in Scottish regional variations of criminal biographies. • The typology is incomplete. • Need to differentiate between the gangster as businessman and the businessman as gangster. • Modus Operandi versus Modus Vivendi (Smith, 2009).

  17. Findings / Readings (contd) • This lack of an entrepreneur back story is culturally significant as the Scots do not venerate entrepreneurs. • A respondent once quoted “In Greenock we have gangsters not entrepreneurs”. • As a genre the true crime books are worthy of further study to help us understand the Scottish criminal psyche. • Beware of the danger of reifying the gangster.

  18. Conclusions • There is a pressing need for more studies to investigate these Mis-representations or even perhaps Myth-representations of Scottish Criminality (Croall, Mooney & Munro, 2010). • Where are the Asian businessmen/gangsters, the Chinese Triads, Yardies and the Eastern European gangsters who are carving criminal empires on Scotland’s streets? • Where are the rural rogues? (Smith, 2004). • Where are the biographies of Edinburgh, Dundee, Aberdeen and Inverness based gangsters?

More Related