This book introduces a theoretical framework for considering young people’s involvement in gangs and organised crime. This framework – a ‘lens of labour’ proposes a new way of considering young people and their relationship with crime. The labour lens moves away from the problematic and arguably stigmatising ‘victim: offender’ dichotomy that permeates understandings of juvenile offending (Fionda, 2005) and instead positions labour and the need for young people to work at the centre of criminological discourse.

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