Moral panics and Glasgow gangs: Exploring 'the new wave of Glasgow hooliganism', 1965-1970

Between 1965 and 1968, gangs ‘reappeared’ in Glasgow. Perceived as younger, more violent and more dangerous to the public than their interwar predecessors, concern quickly grew in the media, police force, local and national government and the public domain more generally. This article uses the sociological concept of ‘moral panics’ to explore ‘the New Wave of Glasgow Hooliganism’. It demonstrates the social construction of ‘deviance’ in practice, placing escalating concerns and debates over solutions to ‘the gang problem’ in the wider context of fears about increasing levels of youth violence in the 1960s Britain. In Glasgow, popular perceptions and ‘folk-lore’ about gangs affected opinions and responses, and often conflicted with empirical evidence conducted at the time.