Some aspects of Pack Rape in Sydney
| Author | G. D. Woods |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486586900200205 |
| Published date | 01 June 1969 |
| Date | 01 June 1969 |
Some
aspects
of
Pack
Rape
in
Sydney
G. D. WOODS*
INTRODUCTION
IF
it is inappropriate to say
that
pack rape is in vogue these days, certainly
it is
true
to say
that
it
is very
much
in
the
public mind,
at
least in so
far
as
the
public
mind
can
be said to be expressed in newspaper headlines
and
letters to
the
Editor signed "Outraged, Artarmon".
The imagery involved in
the
term
"pack rape" is highly charged. Coined
(the
writer believes) for
an
issue of
the
Daily Mirror
otthe
26th of Septem-
ber
1963,
the
popular conception of
it
as a kind of sexual blitzkreig
has
pro-
duced
the
widespread impression
that
it is both a novel
and
ahighly
in-
fectious crime; beliefs
the
first of which is incorrect
and
the
second of
which is grossly exaggerated.
It
is in
this
context,
then,
that
the
writer
has
attempted
to assess
the
causes of
this
offence
and
to evaluate
what
ought to be society's reaction
to it.
All works on gangs are Ultimately descriptive,
and
although con-
clusions
may
be buttressed by statistics
they
are fundamentally dependent
for
their
validity on
the
insight of
the
author. While
there
is a large body
of
literature
on
the
subject of groups generally,
not
much
of
it
has
to
do
with gangs.
In
contrast
with goal-oriented groups such as school classes,
work
units
or fighter-pilot squadrons, all of which
are
relatively amenable
to analysis in more or less precise ways,
the
delinquent gang is difficult
to study in
its
natural
setting.
In
so
far
as
this
paper
is based to a large
extent
on personal impressions no claim is made
that
the
conclusions
drawn
are
capable of statistical verification, although some statistics
are
used mainly to illustrate
the
writer's line of reasoning. One
author
expresses
his impressions of pack rape
after
this
fashion:
I
hadn't
had
so
much
fun in my whole life since I
had
become a
bodgie
and
joined
the
boys. We
had
plenty of sheilas knocking
around
with us,
and
there
was always one of
them
Willing to indulge
in love-play with us. There were also
the
other
real
tough
widgies,
who
thought
nothing of
taking
on a dozen or so of our boys in a
back-up. I
had
been in a couple of back-ups since joining up,
and
I
thought
they
were terrific fun. All
the
boys reminded me of a
lot of dogs chasing
after
abitch
that
was on
heat
when
they
were
*LL.M., Dip. Ed. (Syd.), Lecturer in Law, Faculty of Commerce, University of New South
Wales. Manuscript received Novemoer 14, 1968.
105
To continue reading
Request your trial