Re-imagining the landscape of gangs; reflections from Bangladesh and China

This paper considered the landscape of gangs and organised crime. By drawing on a comparative analysis of 2 large-scale qualitative case studies conducted in Bangladesh and Mainland China, the paper explores the nature and the dynamics of gangs and how these criminal groups operate in each country, often in alliance with the state. The paper considers gangs through the lens of Southern criminology and in doing so deliberates extant gang research largely derived from the global North. The paper argues that it is necessary to develop a new way to conceptualise young people who operate at the lowest echelons of gangs; proposing that the term ‘illicit child labourer’ be better integrated into the discourse. The paper concludes by reflecting on the need to re-imagine the landscape of gangs and organised crime; to expand awareness of the fluidity and variety of gangs, particularly those that operate as the lower echelons of organised crime groups and engage in ‘illicit labour’. The implications for theoretical explanations of gangs, decolonising criminology and the development of global understandings of gangs and organised crime are discussed