The Eurogang Network seeks to enhance and facilitate multi-method, multi-national research on a wide range of topics related to (youth) gangs and troublesome youth groups. For this purpose, instruments have been developed that allow for comparative examination of this important social issue across diverse social, cultural, and political contexts. The network originated from a visit to Europe from the renowned gang scholar Malcom Klein, who observed that European youth group violence had qualities commonly associated with American youth gangs. In response to this development, a group of European and American researchers convened in a series of meetings and workshops from 1998 onwards to discuss the ‘Eurogang’ phenomenon. These workshops facilitated international collaboration between gang researchers, resulting in various publications, including Eurogang book volumes and a special issue of a peer reviewed journal. The Eurogang Network has evolved into a truly global scholarly community, now including researchers from Europe and North, Central, and South America, as well as across the Global South. This expansion reflects both the worldwide relevance of youth group violence and the Network’s commitment to inclusive, cross-cultural, and comparative research. Importantly, this research and the knowledge-base that emerges from it will help inform prevention and intervention policies worldwide, helping to reduce the negative consequences associated with these often socially excluded youth groups.

Emerging from the European meetings was a call for a collaborative and comprehensive strategy to develop a better understanding of the diversity of these emergent youth groups. These are the four primary objectives:

1. To enhance scientific knowledge and insight regarding the causes, consequences, mechanisms and meanings related to (youth) gangs and troublesome youth groups worldwide, including socio-economic conditions, institutional processes and social exclusion mechanisms.
2. To maintain an infrastructure for comparative, multi-method, cross-national research on youth gangs and troublesome groups.
3. To disseminate and effectively utilize knowledge to inform the development of effective local, national, and international responses related to the group context of youth crime and violence.
4. To expand and sustain a globally inclusive research network that incorporates diverse regional perspectives in order to advance culturally informed, equitable, and comparative understandings of gang and youth group violence and delinquency worldwide.