Organised Crime, Gangs and the Complexity of Group Offending in Bangladesh

Abstract

This chapter explores the landscape of organised crime and group related offending in Dhaka, Bangladesh. By drawing on interviews with 22 street children, 80 interviews with criminal justice practitioners, NGO workers and community members and over three years of participant observation of the Bangladeshi criminal justice system and wider society the chapter explores the landscape of criminal groups in Dhaka and considers, in turn, their nature and the connections and associations they have with one another. The chapter begins by exploring mastaans – Bangladeshi mafia groups, and then considers the gangs and street children that make up the lower echelons of these criminal enterprises. In addition, the chapter explores other forms of criminal groups including: organised crime groups, ‘rich gangs’, ‘student groups’ and finally ‘extremist groups’ and conceptualisations of terrorism. The chapter concludes with a discussion of the complexity of criminal groups in Dhaka, and the implications of this on global understanding of crime and violence.