<p>This introduction to the special issue on “Critical Gangster Life Histories” explores the origins and evolution of the life history method in relation to gang research, before considering the contributions of the contemporary renaissance in studies based on gangster life histories. In particular, it makes a case for the need to expand on traditional and mainstream approaches, highlighting the value of new methods, epistemologies, and forms of representation, and laying out the broad contours of a new critical research agenda. It then presents the key contributions of the eleven articles that make up the special issue.</p>