Through participatory research and creative auto/biography, in particular, this article highlights how young offenders in southwestern Colombia live at home, go to school and fit in the trafficking of cannabis in their spare time. This part-time participation in criminal networks becomes part of a deliberate plan to succeed and confront positions of socio-economic hardship and emotional precarity. This strategic offending in the region of Cauca with its protracted violence and alternative social order constitutes an attempt to confront ontological insecurity and establish improved life chances. These lived experiences of drug trafficking also highlight Colombia’s community, city and country lines – three levels of trafficking route along which these young part-timers shift cannabis to local, national and international markets.
AhlinEMLobo AntunesMJ (2022). Youth Violence in Context: An Ecological Routine Activity Framework. London: Routledge.
2.
AppletonJV (2014) Child sexual exploitation, victimisation and vulnerability. Child Abuse Review23(3): 155–158.
3.
Arafat PayneYBryantA (2018) Street participatory action research in prison: A methodology to challenge privilege and power in correctional facilities. The Prison Journal98(4): 449–469.
4.
AriasDEGoldsteinDM (eds) (2010) Violent Democracies in Latin America. Durham, NC; New York: Duke University Press.
5.
AtkinsonR (2012) The life story interview as a mutually equitable relationship. In: GubriumJHolsteinJMarvastiA, et al. (eds) The SAGE Handbook of Interview Research: The Complexity of the Craft, 2nd Edition.Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 115–128.
6.
Attride-StirlingJ (2001) Thematic networks: An analytic tool for qualitative research. Qualitative Research1(3): 385–405.
7.
BairdA (2012) Negotiating pathways to manhood: Rejecting gangs and violence in Medellın’s periphery. Journal of Conflictology3(1): 30–41.
8.
BanduraA (1997) Self-Efficacy: The Exercise of Control. New York: W. H. Freeman/Times Books.
9.
BronfenbrennerU (1974) Developmental research, public policy, and the ecology of childhood. Child Development45(1): 1–5.
10.
BronfenbrennerU (1977) Toward an experimental ecology of human development. American Psychologist32(7): 513–531.
Castellanos DiazJBarrantes ChavarroM (2022) Report number 1: Micro-trafficking gangs. Revista Facultad de Jurisprudencia1(13): 204–216.
13.
CharlesM (2021) La niñez que peleó la guerra en Colombia [The Children who Fought War in Colombia]. Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad del Rosario.
14.
CharlesM (2022) La niñez reclutada. La participación de niños, niñas y adolescentes en el crimen organizado y el conflcito despuées del Acuerdo de Paz. [Recruited Childhood. The pasrticipation of Children and Teenagers in organised crime and conflict after the peace agreement]. Documentos OCCO. The Colombian Observatory of Organised Crime Working Paper Series Number 4. Universidad del Rosario: Bogotá.
15.
CharlesMFowler-WattK (2020) The tree of love: Life writing and ‘seasons of self’ among former child soldiers in Colombia. Life Writing19(3): 373–393.
16.
ColiandrisG (2015) County lines and wicked problems: Exploring the need for improved policing approaches to vulnerability and early intervention. Australasian Policing7(2): 32–35.
17.
CoomberRMoyleL (2012) A Rapid Appraisal of the Illicit Drug Market in Southend-on-Sea, Essex. Plymouth: Drug and Alcohol Research Unit.
18.
CoomberRMoyleL (2018) The changing shape of street-level heroin and crack supply in England: Commuting, holidaying and cuckooing drug dealers across ‘County Lines’. The British Journal of Criminology58(6): 1323–1342.
DenzinNK (1989) Interpretive Biography. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
24.
DouglasK (2010) Contesting Childhood: Autobiography, Trauma, and Memory. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
25.
DowdneyL (2003) The Children of the Drugs Trade. London: Save The Children.
26.
DupéréVLeventhalTVitaroF (2012) Neighborhood processes, self-efficacy, and adolescent mental health. Journal of Health and Social Behavior53(2): 183–198.
27.
EllisK (2018) Contested vulnerability: A case study of girls in secure care. Children and Youth Services Review88(2): 156–163.
28.
Felbab-BrownV (2005) The Coca connection: Conflict and drugs in Colombia and Peru. Journal of Conflict Studies25(2): 104–128.
29.
FranzénAGGottzénL (2022) Childhood adversities and individual responsibility as explanations for criminality in incarcerated young men’s narratives. Deviant Behavior43(9): 1021–1035.
30.
FureyRKayJBarleyRCripssCShiptonLSteillB (2010) Developing ethical guidelines for safeguarding children during social research. Research Ethics Review6(4): 120–127.
31.
GaltungJ (1990) Cultural violence. Journal of Peace Research27(3): 291–305.
32.
GiddensA (1984) The Constitution of Society: Outline of the Theory of Structuration. Cambridge: Polity Press.
33.
GrayP (2013) Assemblages of penal governance, social justice and youth justice partnerships. Theoretical Criminology17(4): 517–534.
HirschiT (2001) Causes of Delinquency. London: Routledge.
38.
JohnsDFWilliamsKHainesK (2017) Ecological youth justice: Understanding the social ecology of young people’s prolific offending. Youth Justice17(1): 3–21.
39.
KayS (2012) Ontological security and peace-building in Northern Ireland. Contemporary Security Policy33(2): 236–263.
40.
KemshallH (2008) Risks, rights and justice: Understanding and responding to youth risk. Youth Justice8(1): 21–37.
LaingRD (2010) The Divided Self: An Existential Study in Sanity and Madness. London: Penguin Books.
43.
LeonardM (2015) The Sociology of Children: Childhood and Generation. London: Sage.
44.
LindegaardMRJacquesS (2014) Agency as a cause of crime. Deviant Behavior35(2): 85–100.
45.
McGeeRFlórez LópezJA (2016) Power, violence, citizenship and agency: A Colombian case study. IDS Working Paper 474, 7August. Brighton: Institute of Development Studies.
46.
National Crime Agency (NCA) (2017) County Lines Gang Violence, Exploitation and Drug Supply 2017. London: NCA.
47.
PolkinghorneDE (1988) Narrative Knowing and the Human Sciences. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.
48.
PresserL (2012) Getting on top through mass murder: Narrative, metaphor, and violence. Crime, Media, Culture8(1): 3–21.
49.
PyroozDC (2014) From your first cigarette to your last dyin’ day: The patterning of gang membership in the life-course. Journal of Quantitative Criminology30: 349–372.
50.
RamírezMC (2010) Maintaining democracy in Colombia through political exclusion, states of exception, counterinsurgency, and dirty war. In: AriasDEGoldsteinDM (eds) Violent Democracies in Latin America. Durham, NC; New York: Duke University Press, 84–107.
51.
ReuterP (2009) Systemic violence in drug markets. Crime, Law and Social Change52(3): 275–289.
RobinsonGMcLeanRDensleyJ (2019) Working county lines: Child criminal exploitation and illicit drug dealing in Glasgow and Merseyside. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology63(5): 694–711.
56.
RomeroM (2003) Paramilitary groups in contemporary Colombia. In: DavisDPereiraA (eds) Irregular Armies and Their Role in Politics and State Formation. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 178–208.
57.
RotkerS (2002) Citizens of Fear: Urban Violence in Latin America. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.
SpapensTMoorsH (2020) Intergenerational transmission and organised crime. A study of seven families in the south of the Netherlands. Trends in Organized Crime23: 227–241.
SwartzS (2021) Navigational capacities for southern youth in adverse contexts. In: SwartzSCooperABatanCM, et al. (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 401–415.
63.
SwartzSCooperABatanCMKropff CasaL (eds) (2021) The Oxford Handbook of Global South Youth Studies. New York: Oxford University Press.
64.
SwirakK (2016) Problematising advanced liberal youth crime prevention: The impacts of management reforms on Irish Garda youth diversion projects. Youth Justice16(2): 162–180.
VealeA (2005) Creative methodologies in participatory research with children. In: GreeneSHoganD (eds) Researching Children’s Experiences. London: Sage, 253–273.
67.
VighH (2009) Motion squared: A second look at the concept of social navigation. Anthropological Theory9(4): 419–438.
68.
WilesRCrowGHeathSCharlesV (2008) The management of confidentiality and anonymity in social research. International Journal of Social Research Methodology11(5): 417–428.
69.
WindleJMoyleLCoomberR (2020) ‘Vulnerable’ kids going country: Children and young people’s involvement in county lines drug dealing. Youth Justice20(1–2): 64–78.
