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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.

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

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  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?

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