Millions of the world’s children engage in labour, often exploitative and essential to their survival (UNICEF 2021). However, labour – as a driving factor for young people’s involvement in organized crime remains marginalized in the Criminology discourse. This book estalishes a labour lens, discussing the need for young people to work, earn an income and assist their survival on the streets, embedded within wider structures of illicit markets, established organised crime and state. It draws on data from three studies conducted in Bangladesh, China and Nepal which explore the landscape of gangs and organised crime and the specific involvement of vulnerable children in these criminal enterprises. It considers economic drivers, alongside the moral economy within the context of ecological framework of crime, embedded with wider issues of coloniality. In doing so the book develops a new theory conceptual framework for considering young people’s involvement in organised crime. It helps to refine conceptualisations of gangs and the involvement of children in criminal entities, opening up discussions and critiques of universalised assertations largely derived from the global North. It also discusses implications for research, policy and practice.

Sally Atkinson-Sheppard is Lecturer in Criminology the the University of Westminster, UK.