ABSTRACT
This paper is an attempt to briefly present one aspect of a larger collective project being undertaken by members of the Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies on ‘mugging’.1 In this paper we offer an account of the rise in those incidents previously called ‘bag snatching’ or ‘robbery with violence’, which have, in the last twelve months become publicly redefined as ‘muggings’. For reasons of space we have not tried to detail the social reaction to these incidents, nor the uses to which the term ‘mugging’ has been put.2 During the period we are concerned with, the late 1960s and early 1970s, we believe that ‘muggings’ (or rather, those robberies and assaults which were susceptible to public definition as mugging) did increase, and that West Indian youths from ‘deprived’ inner ring areas were significantly overrepresented in the statistics, certainly the predominantly West Indian names mentioned in the newspaper court reports support this. Further support for this argument is to be found in articles by Colin McGlashan (e.g. New Statesman, 13.10.72) who identifies the problems faced by black youths in inner city areas as lying behind the recent statistical rises. This socio-geographical location of mugging is also reinforced (and further compounded) by the activities of special ‘anti-mugging’ squads, both of London and provincial police, and of the London Transport police, who seem to have largely concentrated their efforts on West Indian youths in these areas.
