Adolescents Kolberi in Iran’s Western Borderlands: a Case for Cultural Criminology of Border

Abstract

Kolberi constitutes a form of cross-border labor prevalent in the western regions of Iran, wherein individuals engage in the transportation of various goods across borders to generate income. Despite the fact that government institutions and the border guard police consider Kolberi illegal, a large number of border residents are engaged in this job. A part of this group is made up of adolescents, on whom this research is focused. The researchers adopt a Cultural Criminology approach to understand how adolescents get involved in Kolberi. To gather information, the research employed a combination of interviews, document analysis, and virtual data, while thematic analysis was utilized to examine the findings. Our findings reveal that the dialectical interaction between the political economy of border, border culture, and the adolescent Kolbers’ subculture contribute to the formation of adolescents Kolberi and the reproduction of Kolberi within the border community. In this way, adolescents Kolberi is an illustrative exemplar of the development of cultural criminology of border.