Street Children’s Involvement In Organised Crime In Dhaka

Millions of children around the globe live on the streets and in poverty. However, due to various economic and political reasons, in Bangladesh, the number of street children is particularly high. The Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics (BBS, 2003) estimates that there are over 1.5 million working children in urban areas of Bangladesh of which many live and sleep on the streets. And while street life can be a real challenge for survival for adults, it is even more dangerous for children. Young people living on the streets have no right to education, medical care and are excluded from society which makes it impossible for them to escape the vicious cycle of poverty. Seeking economics dissertation help becomes very critical in understanding and addressing the causes of such socioeconomic issues. Consequently, street children are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation and often end up working for local criminal gangs. It is inevitable that these children get involved with criminal gangs since they need to have a job for securing their street survival and the job done for gangs often brings more money than selling flower or collecting plastic bottles (Hai, 2014). Therefore, raising awareness of children's involvement in organised criminal groups in Bangladesh may be the start to address the level of danger these children are in and the urgent necessity to help them. This methodological review will focus on the research conducted by Sally Atkinson-Sheppard on ‘Street Children’s Involvement in Organised Crime in Dhaka, Bangladesh’. This paper will discuss and critically asses three concepts which are relevant to the research, the methodological approaches, ethical implications, the findings, its contribution to the field and will finish with a discussion on the limitations and recommendations of further areas of research.

In this research, three significantly important and highly criticised concepts have been used: street children, child labour and organised crime. While there is no agreed definition of ‘street children’ it refers to young people for whom the street became their home and there they do not have responsible adults to supervise and protect them (Ohchr.org, 2012). In this study, the author used this concept to describe kids with a number of different ‘street connections’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015). The researcher pointed out that in order to understand the lives of these children and the problems they face daily we must take into account ‘the nature of life on the streets and the connections which children make while living there’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015:3). However, she does not consider the possible harm of labelling young persons as ‘street children’ in the first place. According to Makofane’s (2014) study on effect that the label ‘street children’ has on South African kids, if used in a negative manner, the power of such label can stigmatise and dehumanise them, since children reported not being comfortable with being called as such (Makofane, 2014). In addition to this, he stated that the overall negative portrayal of children who live in the streets of South Africa is the result of the use of the label “street children”. Which confirms labelling theory and Becker’s (1963) statement that ‘the names or labels other use to define us affect how we view ourselves and our status in society and how others treat us’ (Ugwudike, 2015, p43). Therefore, great care must be taken with use of the concept because by calling young people who live or associate with the street as street children we straight away ‘stick’ a deviant label on them which can shape their self-perception and how society treats them (Creaney, 2012).

Child labour refers to the work of a child for a large number of hours in an unsuitable job which is harmful to the child. While there is no universally agreed definition of child labour, this study uses the one developed by The International Labour Organization (ILO) which defines child labour as ‘work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity and that is harmful to physical and mental development’ (Ilo.org, 2019). According to Bhukuth (2008) to understand this phenomenon we first need to define what it is meant by it. However, this cannot be easily done since the term ‘child labour’ depends on both, the definition of ‘work’ and ‘childhood’. (Schlemmer, 1997 as cited in Bhukuth, 2008: 385). In addition, due to children’s welfare, it is internationally agreed that the worst forms of child labour must be banned. However, ILO definition of the worst forms of child labour involves only ‘children being enslaved, separated from their families, exposed to serious hazards and illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves on the streets of large cities – often at a very early age’ (Ilo.org, 2019). This is relevant to Sally’s study because she argues that this definition fails to include children involved in organised crime and consequently this oversight leaves millions of vulnerable young children unprotected (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015).

Organised crime is one of the most important and at the same time the most complex concept used in this study. The use of this concept has long been a source of controversy between scholars due to the ‘nature and extent of the organisation of crime’ (Mclaughlin and Muncie, 2013: 301). Organised criminal activity varies across countries, therefore, different countries approach various aspects of the problem in a different way (Adamoli et al., 1998). As a result, there are many definitions of organised crime. However, features such as the purpose of financial profit, corruption and the use of intimidation and threats to achieve organisational goals are common amongst many of these definitions (Albanese, 2003). To understand criminal organisations in Bangladesh is a vital part of the research because it allows identifying how criminal groups operate, how the labour is divided and how criminal groups are managed (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015). This research revealed that organised criminal groups in Bangladesh are hierarchically structured and that they carry out business by using gang members and children. However, ‘this research offers the first robust empirical study of the gangs of Bangladesh’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015: 2) which means that there is not much known about organised crime in Bangladesh or how these groups operate from other academic researches. This research followed a qualitative line of inquiry and was conducted by using the case study approach. This approach is useful to study complex issues in-depth and in its natural everyday context in which they occur (Crowe et al., 2011). The case study approach consisted of three phases: participant observation of the Bangladesh criminal justice system and society overall; interviews with 80 adult practitioners, including police officers, non-governmental organisation workers and journalists and an embedded case study with 22 street children (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018: 2). Three-phases of data collection were used in order to gain an in-depth knowledge that was required for the best understanding about the issue since ‘the landscape of children’s involvement in organised crime is highly complex’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018: 5). The first phase, observation, was necessary for the researcher to explore the cultural, historical, social and political context surrounding organised crime in Bangladesh because children’s involvement in criminal gangs is ‘inextricably linked to the context in which it occurs’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018: 5). Moreover, this country was new for the Researcher. According to Allen (2017), observation is essential in a study such as this because you gain knowledge by observing people in their normal environment where they tend to react in a realistic way. The second phase was designed to learn about the issue from an adult perspective; it consisted of semi-structured and unstructured interviews and two focus groups. While interview allows the Researcher to ask relevant questions and control the dynamics of discussion, often this method is criticised for being too restrictive as here researcher is an ‘investigator’ (Nyumba et al., 2018). Consequently, focus groups interviews were conducted to allow for a more conversational style of interaction. In this setting, the Researcher is no longer an ‘investigator’ but rather a ‘moderator’. Here Sally had a role to moderate a group discussion between participants and as a result, a richer sense of data was obtained (Nyumba et al., 2018). However, this research seems to lack an explanation of how the researcher approached interviews and conducted observation to avoid cultural and personal biases. As mentioned earlier, Bangladesh is a new country for the researcher, which means that most likely she went there with a North lease of seeing, understanding and explaining the world, hence this research is exposed to a risk of ethnocentrism. According to Nelken (2009), “ it is inevitable that our perception of others will be coloured to some extent by our own cultural starting points”. Therefore, there is a need for more explanation on how the researcher was able to be critical of her own understanding.

Third and the final phase is an embedded case study with 22 street children who are ‘associated with an organisation that provides holistic support to children that live on the streets’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015:4). The case study included: 12 months of observation, five workshops and group interviews. However, research bias will always be an issue when interviewing kids. Adults are aliens whenever they try to ‘attempt to re-enter the territory of childhood’ (Morison, Moir and Kwansa, 2000:127). Thus, to build trust and rapport, the Researcher visited the organisation on a weekly basis, ‘held parties and played games to get to know the children’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015:5). No doubt, within a one-year time, the Researcher and some of these children became very close to each other which could lead to research bias and affect the validity of the study. While some scholars argue that in qualitative research close researcher–participant retaliations are beneficial to obtain ‘better’ data, other academics suggest that the impersonality to the participants make it difficult for the researcher to be reflective and neutral (Given, 2008). Moreover, it is possible for child participants to exaggerate some details. It is undetermined whether they are being honest or they say what the Researcher expects to hear, due to various reasons including close relationships with the researcher. (Graham et al., 2013). A similar critique can be done of both observations carried for this research since even if individuals are in their own environment it is not clear whether they are not changing their behaviour because someone is observing them (Guest et. al., 2013). Findings from the observation have to be interpreted and therefore change in behaviour can impact the validity of the research. In this case, the Researcher partially overcame this issue by observing participants weekly for a long period of time as recorded observation is not a suitable option for this research (Guest et. al., 2013). Overall, case study approach can be criticised regarding generality of the findings because of ‘its dependence on a ‘single’ case’ (Idowu, 2016: 185).

Moreover, while the sample size of this research is big for a qualitative study, it can always be extended further. Compared to the population of Dhaka, ‘the number of street children involved in this case was relatively small’ and there were more male participants than female (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018:14). Moreover, this study has geographical limitations since it was conducted only in one city of Bangladesh. Therefore, the research reveals only a partial picture of the issue. In addition, it is cross-language research and the interpreter was used to communicate with the research participants. One of the issues with using interpreter is that it makes conversation disjointed and less spontaneous, however, the Researcher points out that the Interpreter ‘became an imperative and integrated part of the research’ as he not only translated but also questioned ‘anything he did not agree with or asked the children when he needed further information’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018:7). In spite of this, a potential implication of language translation itself for the research findings does still exist(Bergen, 2018).

Qualitative research investigating the involvement of street children in organised crime groups raises a variety of ethical problems. When interviewing children on sensitive topics, researchers are advised to avoid subjects that might frighten the child (Esomar.org, 2019), however, violence and criminality were key themes discussed during the interviews. The Researcher overcame this ethical issue by designing ‘research to explore the children’s perception of crime and violence as opposed to gathering specific details of criminal offences’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018: 6). Also, ‘none name’ policy was adopted. For the safety of everyone, children were asked not to provide names or details of certain crimes they were aware of. Moreover, the Researcher and the director of the organisation where the participants lived agreed on child safety policy (to provide support for a child and anyone else involved) which would be implemented if the Researcher ‘felt that the young person was at risk or a risk to others’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018: 7). However, even though sensitive issues were discussed within the interviews, safety policy was not implemented once as in none of the instances did the children disclose any information that would put them or others at risk (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018). In addition to this, informed consent was obtained from all children included in the study and the director of organisation was responsible for them during their time at the organisation because it would have been too difficult to gain parental consent since many of these children are orphans (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018: 7).

However, there is not enough information on risk of the researcher. Democracy is Bangladesh continues to be plagued by political instability. As a result, in recent years Bangladesh start drifting back to authoritarian rule (Kukreja and Singh, 2008). Glasius et. al., (2017) points out that field research in authoritarian countries is the highest risk type of social science research and topics such as organised crime make such efforts even more dangerous. While it is not common, it is known that some researchers have been arrested, detained and expelled due to certain activities or topics investigated (Glasius et. al., 2017). Therefore, the Researcher should have explored risks in more detail in particular because as part of her observation she went into some very dangerous slums in Dakha. While the risk was managed by using interpreter and connections it is not clear whether it is possible to manage all the risks. Overall, while the research is of a sensitive and dangerous nature ‘all phases of the research adhered to the British Society of Criminology’s Ethical Code’ as this case was a conducted for a doctorate degree at King’s College London and the Researcher worked closely with the supervisor (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018: 5).

Participants perceptions of the organised crime in Bangladesh revealed strong relationships between criminal gangs and the state. Mastaans, mafia-type groups, conduct illegal activities in alignment with corrupt politicians who provide them with impunity. In return, politicians receive a share of the extortion money and political support (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2017). Similarly, to the rise of criminal gangs in other countries, such as Sicilian mafia, the emergence of hooligans can be linked to the developing nature of the state (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2017). Due to endemic poverty, rapid urbanisation and pervasiveness of slums, these hooligans exercise stringent control over these poor areas and play a huge role in the delivery of services and social protection for people who live there (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2017). The data demonstrated that organised crime in Dhaka operates via a hierarchy as ‘mastaan groups operate criminal businesses with clearly defined roles, responsibilities and ways to earn and divide profits’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015:6). They use gangs to control different areas of the city and children operate at the bottom echelon of these groups (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015).

The interviewees conceptualised involvement of street children in crime groups as work rather than a crime. Mastaan groups hire children ‘to commit a variety of offences, including political violence, land grabbing, contract killings, drug dealing and extortion’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015: 13). Vulnerability and the vital need for money have been identified as the main factors to why street children are easy targets for criminal gangs in the first place (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015). However, since there are clearly defined structures and work division within local criminal gangs often children ‘have specific roles such as drug runner’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015: 7) and therefore themselves believe to be engaged in business (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015). One of the child participants pointed out that children commit crime because ‘they do it like a job, the boss orders them and they have to follow them. Just like a job.’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015:8). Hence, according to the the Researcher, these young people are neither ‘victims of exportation’ or ‘gang members’; they are ‘unskilled or semi-skilled workers in criminal enterprises’ and therefore should be seen as ‘illicite labourers’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2015: 2). However, questions of the moral agency remain unanswered as it is not clear where the capability of these children lie. Or how do we describe them if one day their work becomes more skilled and they stop being labourers. In addition, the research lacks discussion on human rights legislation and policies that are disregarded by children employment within criminal gangs, such as the right to education under Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights because education can play a huge role in helping to break up this vicious circle of poverty and therefore to reduce young peoples’ involvement in organised crime (Mojsoska-Blazevski et. al., 2017).

There are only very few studies conducted on street children’s involvement in organised crime. While there are no previous studies on organised crime in Bangladesh at all and only very little is published about street children’s views on Bangladeshi criminal gangs which means that street children involvement in criminal gangs is almost unknown area of sociological and criminological research (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018). From the previous literature, it is known that most of the time children’s connection to the street is linked to the poverty, income inequality, weak connection to their family and inadequate child protection system (Thomas de Benitez, 2007). Moreover, violent environment, discrimination and stigmatisation are predominant features in the lives of street children around the globe. However, previous studies into street children are not systematic and the experiences of children ‘are disassociated from the laws, policies, interventions and environments that affect them’ (Thomas de Benitez, 2007:9). Therefore, this research significantly contributed to the field and demonstrated a new way to study the phenomena by including children’s views in a discussion of organised crime. Moreover, to date, there are no other case studies conducted on street children’s involvement in hooligan criminal groups in Dhaka (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018). On the other hand, it is not clear what happened to these street children after research was conducted as not many studies can follow up on the participants. But if that was possible we would have an even better understanding of the hierarchal structure of gangs of hooligans and how they operate. Moreover, there could have been more discussion with older children on what they have done to avoid getting involved in the criminal world. This would have added a deeper insight into their life and how a support system for street children could be improved.

There are no limitation free studies, no matter how well conducted and constructed, all of the studies have some weaknesses. While some limitations are possible to be eliminated, others are out of the Researcher’s control. Firstly, as mentioned earlier, this case is based mainly on male participants. Thus, if conducting a similar project more women participants should be involved and the impact of gender explored further (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018). Secondly, children's involvement in the streets and criminal gangs was analysed only from ‘the perspectives of within the organisation’ (Atkinson-Sheppard, 2018:14) which means this study reveals only a partial picture of the lives of street children and does not explore how their perceptions change within time. Hence, a longitudinal study could be conducted to explore the same issues but from a different perspective. If the Researcher considers these recommendations, the validity of the research can be increased and even better understanding on the topic can be obtained. Lastly, the replication of the study is the most common way to examine the scientific merit of results. However, this research is time-consuming as it took three years to conduct it. In addition to this, the Researcher was working three times per week to be able to fund this study. Therefore, from a practical sense, it might be not possible for another researcher to replicate it. On the other hand, the Researcher replicated her research work by conducting the study on organised crime and street children's involvement in criminal gangs in China. Similar findings were obtained as children were found to conduct menial crimes such as theft on behalf of the gang members (Atkinson-Sheppard and Hayward, 2019).

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