How gangs recruit girls!

If the lifeblood of organised crime is the weak and the vulnerable, what does that say of those newly recruited to the ranks? Organised crime is understood to be a “male only” world, yet a new book Graphic Narratives of Organised Crime, Gender and Power in Europe (Routledge 2022) analyses the first-hand accounts of girls and women inducted into the criminal underworld. Stories covered in the talk include harrowing narratives of young women recruited into British gangs, Nigerian syndicates, Italian Mafias, and Albanian drug gangs. Forcefully depicting the lives of the voiceless and hidden, the book uses imaginative methods to bring untold stories to life.

Professor Felia Allum, University of Bath

Artwork by Anna Mitchell