Abstract | The paper considers organised crime, gangs and the involvement of street children in illicit enterprises in Nepal. By drawing on a large-scale ethnographic study in Kathmandu, the paper considers the nature of gangs and organised crime, reflecting on instrumental drivers for crime, embedded within wider structures of illicit markets, established organised crime, state:crime collaboration and the need for children to work to survive. The presentation integrates economic drivers for involvement in organised crime with the moral economy, within the context of ecological framework of crime, embedded with wider issues of coloniality. In doing so, the paper reflects on the suitability of a ‘lens of labour’ as a means by which to deliberate young people’s involvement in gangs and organised crime in Nepal. It situates these discussions within a comparative analysis of 2 similar studies conducted in Bangladesh and China; implications for other counties in South-Asia, including India are considered. |
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