ABSTRACT
This chapter considers the landscape of gangs and organised crime. By drawing on two large-scale qualitative case studies conducted in Bangladesh and mainland China, the chapter explores the nature and dynamics of gangs and how these criminal groups operate in each country, often in alliance with the state. The chapter considers gangs through the lens of Southern criminology and in doing so deliberates extant gang research largely derived from the global North. The chapter concludes by reflecting on the need to re-imagine the landscape of gangs and organised crime and to expand awareness of the fluidity and variety of gangs, particularly those that operate as the lower echelons of organised crime groups. The implications for theoretical explanations of gangs, critical and Southern criminology and the development of global understandings of gangs and organised crime are discussed.
