The International Centre for the Prevention of Crime is releasing Trajectories Under Coercive Control: Understanding the Criminal Exploitation of Minors in a Fragmented Criminal Ecosystem Since 2018, a new report that examines recent shifts in youth criminal dynamics in Montréal and introduces an analytical framework centred on the criminal exploitation of young people.
A report structured in three parts
The report is organized into three complementary sections. The first examines the reconfiguration of organized crime in Montréal since 2018, with a focus on actors, structures, and contemporary dynamics. The second looks at youth trajectories and changing modes of involvement in criminalized networks. The third shifts the analytical framework from a Québec perspective in order to better capture the mechanisms of criminal exploitation affecting young people.
Drawing on a mixed-methods approach, the report encourages a move beyond reductive interpretations focused solely on the notion of “gangs” in order to better understand the dynamics of control, dependency, and instrumentalization that shape contemporary youth trajectories.
What the report highlights
- The fragmentation of criminal structures is reshaping power relations and increasing some young people’s exposure to forms of criminal exploitation.
- Central actors exert greater control over resources and decision-making, while minors occupy more vulnerable and interchangeable positions.
- Modes of involvement are evolving, notably through the use of digital contracts, more diffuse pathways, and more unstable and instrumentalized forms of violence.
- The report also examines phenomena such as fraud, vehicle theft, arms circulation, and changes in certain youth profiles.
For further information, please contact info@cipc-icpc.org.