This paper presents a study of mafia groups in Bangladesh. Drawing on the views and experiences of 22 street children, 80 interviews with criminal justice practitioners, NGO workers and community members and over 3 years of participant observation of the criminal justice system, the paper considers the ‘mastaans’: Bangladeshi mafia groups. The article draws on both theories of protection and behaviour to develop a social protection theory of the mafia. The article considers the social networks of mastaan groups, their prevalence, where they operate, divisions of labour, the crimes that they commit and the associations that they have with politicians and the police. The paper demonstrates that mastaans work in alliance with corrupt members of the state and they provide access to services, resolve disputes, commit extortion and carry out a wide array of criminal activity, much of which relies on their monopolisation of violence to protect their illegal industries. The paper demonstrates—for the first time—that mafias operate in Bangladesh and draws on data gathered from both adults and children, the implications of which are discussed.

中文翻译：

---

“Mastaan​​s”和社会保护市场探索孟加拉国达卡的黑手党组织

本文介绍了对孟加拉国黑手党组织的研究。根据 22 名街头儿童的观点和经验、对刑事司法从业人员、非政府组织工作人员和社区成员的 80 次采访以及对刑事司法系统超过 3 年的参与观察，本文考虑了“masaans”：孟加拉国黑手党团体。本文借鉴保护理论和行为理论来发展黑手党的社会保护理论。这篇文章考虑了 Masaan 团体的社交网络、它们的流行程度、它们的经营地点、分工、它们犯下的罪行以及它们与政治家和警察的联系。该论文表明，mastaan​​s 与国家的腐败成员结盟，他们提供获得服务的机会，解决争端，进行敲诈勒索并进行广泛的犯罪活动，其中大部分依赖于他们对暴力的垄断来保护其非法产业。该论文首次证明了黑手党在孟加拉国活动，并利用从成人和儿童收集的数据，并讨论了其影响。