Crime In Mexico Research Articles

Bargaining with criminals: The morality of witness collaboration in Mexico's “war on drugs”

Public authorities take considerable and oftentimes controversial steps in their efforts to dismantle criminal organizations involved in drug trafficking and related crimes in Mexico. Among other things, they recruit offenders who abandon their criminal organization and strike a deal with law enforcement agents and prosecutors to share information about their co-perpetrators in exchange for leniency in sentencing as well as of protection from retaliation. This article explores whether the deployment of collaborators is morally permissible in view of the significant risks it exposes them to, most notably retaliatory aggressions. The article examines the underlying philosophical problem regarding the justifiability of deploying collaborators in the social and political circumstances prevailing in the country. The normative framework I advance to explore the Mexican case can be useful in examining the ethical implications of using collaborating witnesses elsewhere.

The desecuritization of drug trafficking in Mexico under the AMLO administration.

The desecuritization of drug trafficking in Mexico under the AMLO administration.

Crimes Against Agriculture: NAFTA as State Crime in Mexico

With the implementation of NAFTA in 1994, several consequences have followed. The current study is a case study of the negative harms primarily felt by Mexican farmers. Using the copious research on NAFTA, the trade deal is shown to have ingratiated transnational corporations while leaving poor rural farmers to cope for themselves in a newly shaped economy. Using anomie-strain theory, social structure of accumulation theory, and the concept of a criminogenic policy, NAFTA is contextually situated and connected to its harmful effects, contributing to poverty, under- and unemployment, displacement of rural farmers, the destruction of small-scale corn growers, malnutrition via the neoliberal diet, and a loss of Mexican food sovereignty. Nearly three decades after NAFTA, ignorance of such effects should not be possible in light of negotiating new or renegotiated old trade deals. Researchers of state crime must build an understanding of how policy is a tool of state crime.

Multivariate analysis and characterization of low impact crime in Mexico City

Background: Multivariate analysis is fast becoming a key instrument that can be used to address crimes or incidents. It may be helpful to assess government policies on crime prevention. Methods: To distinguish between the 25 official crime categories reported in Mexico City (Jan 2019 - Jun 2019), principal coordinates analysis was used to determine the quality of a characteristic in this context. This study used cluster analysis via K-means and Biplot based on time and location in terms of crime occurrence. Results: The results obtained from this preliminary analysis indicates that around 70% of crime occurrence is shown in the following boroughs: Cuauhtémoc, Iztapalapa, Gustavo A. Madero, Benito Juárez, Álvaro Obregón, Coyoacán, and Miguel Hidalgo. Conclusion: There are two factors that contribute to the difficulties in crime analysis in Mexico City, namely, the lack of people’s trust in authorities and the insufficiency of tools for data analysis. The latter is an integral part in achieving justice for the victims of crimes because it impedes the process of observing patterns and predicting the perpetrators’ next actions, which may help in solving a number of types of crimes. It is then imperative for law enforcement to utilize data analysis tools that aid in identifying crime patterns and trends, such that the occurrences of crime show a downward trend and consequentially increase the people’s trust in law enforcement agencies.

“Moving the Rubble”: Reflection, Conscientization, and Transformative Learning With Men Incarcerated for Organized Crime in Mexico

While many scholars have examined transformative learning in different prison education programs, the field has only recently reached Latin America. This article presents a participatory action research project which has been operating in a prison for men accused of organized crime in Jalisco, Mexico, since 2018. The analysis is based on testimonies related to personal and collective transformation in a context of multifaceted oppression. It also explores the blurry lines between reflection, conscientization, and transformation, inviting us to consider how transformative education relates to social stigma and freedom.

Non-fatal gunshot injuries during criminal acts in Mexico, 2013–2019

IntroductionAs the volume of firearms (legal and illegal) in Mexico grows, gun violence has become a major public health challenge. While studies have focused on gun-related homicides and robberies, there...

Domesticating Danger: Coping Codes and Symbolic Security amid Violent Organized Crime in Mexico

Sociologists have long debated how labels are deployed to construct and exaggerate social threats but have yet to consider their use to cope with danger. I draw on qualitative fieldwork conducted in the midst of a gruesome turf war in Monterrey, Mexico, to conceptualize coping codes. These defensive labels emerge in everyday conversation and allow its users to allude to threatening actors without being explicit—in this case, violent organized crime labeled malitos, or little evil guys. They emerge from below and in relation to top-bottom labeling processes they can both challenge and reproduce. Coping codes provide symbolic security by minimizing danger, although at a cost when also used to draw symbolic boundaries between the living and the dead “accused of being into something.” The case calls for further research on coping codes in dangerous contexts, particularly at the onset of unsettled times when people tend to minimize rupture.

Dysfunction of Mexico in terms of Personal Security

The article refers to the currently shaped issues of human personal safety in relation to threats arising from events and situations. At the same time, it points out that an exhaustive expression of the need for security is rather unfeasible because this scope in personal view will be categorized by: physiological properties, age, environmental and situational conditions, knowledge, and socio-cultural conditions, as well as life experiences. The author focuses in particular on the analysis of organized crime in Mexico and the impact of these structures on the personal safety of people, social, ethnic, and professional groups, indicating their causes. The rooting or deepening of the indicated social problems and the lack of perspectives to improve them means that the main assumptions of the security strategy, including among others public safety improvement programs, and thus personal safety, is a very complex and extended process. The analysis of the functioning of the Mexican state in the security sphere clearly shows that in this respect state institutions transfer this issue to the citizen. Fears for their safety result from the presence of criminal structures, shocking ones, their uncompromising attitude, sense of impunity, and ruthlessness towards anyone who has been defined by "crime syndicates" as a threat to their existence.

Remittances and Protests against Crime in Mexico

The resource mobilization theory has long emphasized the role of resources in facilitating collective mobilization. In turn, recent research on crime and insecurity in Mexico has drawn attention to the role of local networks of solidarity in facilitating mobilization against crime. We rely on these two literatures to propose that remittances — that is, the resources that emigrants send to their relatives left behind — deserve attention as international determinants of this type of non-violent anti-crime mobilization. Further, relying on recent research on remittances’ impact on political behavior, we hypothesize that the relationship between remittances and contentious action is non-linear, exhibiting a positive effect at low to moderate levels of inflows and declining at higher levels of remittances. We contend that at low to moderate levels, international remittances provide the necessary resources for collective activation. At greater levels of remittance inflows, however, lessened economic and security grievances imply a decline in the probability of protesting. Overall, we show that emigrant remittances matter for organizing protests against criminality at the subnational level but that they produce both an engagement and disengagement effect, depending on the size of the inflows.

On the relationship between police force presence and crime in Mexico: A spatial analysis

ABSTRACT This study seeks to contribute to the literature on the deterrence effect of police on crime by looking at the dynamic between police force presence (number of officers) and criminal behavior on a state level in Mexico. In order to do this, we estimate a panel data pooled ordinary least-squares model, a spatial Durbin model, and a spatial error model to analyze the spatial distribution of police force presence and the behavior of two categories of robberies – street and non-street – between 2009 and 2017. Our results show a positive relationship between the number of assigned officers and criminal behavior; however, this correlation does not derive from either a transversal or temporal relationship between states. This result has implications for state security policies as it suggests that the deployment of police in high crime areas, although responsive in character, has no particular impact on criminal behavior.

Determinants of extortion compliance: Empirical evidence from a victimization survey

AbstractThis article focuses on the situational-, victim- and area-level determinants of extortion compliance. Extortion, a quintessential organized crime, is one of the most common crimes in Mexico. However, compliance with extortion demands is relatively rare. Previous research suggests that compliance with extortion depends on the perceived risk of punishment for non-compliance. However, most research has been theoretical or experimental. The article offers empirical evidence of patterns of extortion compliance based on data from a large commercial victimization survey conducted in Mexico. Findings suggest that situational factors (extortion type, the presence of weapons and number of offenders) are the main determinants of extortion compliance. Victim- and area-level variables have comparatively smaller effects. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

Drug trafficking in the Tarahumara region, northern Mexico: An analysis of racism and dispossession

• Drug trafficking in the Tarahumara region is a racialized phenomenon and is part of a continuum of colonial violence. • Traffickers enact a kind of mestizo sovereignty because of its coloniality in line with mestizaje, rather than in their ability to mimic the state. • The exercise of mestizo sovereignty by the trafficking groups, is transforming others sovereignty expression, Rarámuri autonomy among them. • Racial-masculine hegemonical models are driving forces for young people to join drug trafficking groups and to the erosion of Rarámuri autonomy. Drug trafficking in Mexico has been widely debated from economic and legal perspectives. Some studies conclude that corruption is to blame ( Garay & Albarán, 2012 , Grayson, 2010 , Valdés, 2013 ); yet others argue that criminal organizations are producing terror-based governance patterns grounded in their ambivalent relationship with the State ( Campbell, 2010 , Gibler, 2017 , Reyes, 2015 , Paley, 2014 , Paley, 2015 ). However, what role do mestizaje and gender play in shaping the dynamics of this phenomenon? This article is the product of the shared experiences between a member of the Rarámuri people and an indigenous rights lawyer involved in collective processes for the defense of indigenous territory in the Tarahumara Sierra. It explores the relationship between drug trafficking and the historical structures of racial-gender domination in the Mexican state. We argue that drug traffickers in the Tarahumara region, exercise a kind of sovereignty, that enacts racialization, colonialism, and contrasting power relations. Therefore, drug traffickers’ claims to sovereignty fall in line with the ideology of mestizaje, which is supported by their invocation of coloniality rather their ability to mimic the state. We also argue that, in the case of Rarámuri youth, western schooling and racial-masculine hegemonical models are driving forces in the decision to join the drug trafficking armed forces, and then to the erosion of Rarámuri tradition and autonomy. As such this article sheds new light on the little recognized relationship between colonialism, race, power, gender and drug trafficking in Mexico.

Legacies of Resistance: Mobilization Against Organized Crime in Mexico

What are the legacies of armed resistance? Why do some communities engage in armed mobilization in response to violence, disorder, and insecurity, while others under very similar conditions do not? Focusing on mobilization against organized crime in contemporary Mexico, we argue that historical experiences of armed resistance can have lasting effects on local preferences, networks, and capacities, which can facilitate armed collective action under conditions of rampant insecurity in the long run. Empirically, we study the Cristero rebellion in the early 20th century and grassroots anti-crime mobilization in Mexico during recent years. Using an instrumental variables approach, we show that communities that pushed back against state incursions almost a century earlier were more likely to rise up against organized crime in contemporary times.

Resistance to hydropower developments in contexts of violence and organised crime in Mexico

Hydropower developments not only have far reaching consequences like ecological degradation and the disappearance of livelihood resources. They also spur micropolitical processes of territorial and productive re-ordering within and between communities. This article analyses the response mechanisms of the inhabitants of a community located in the reservoir of a hydroelectric project in Mexico, facing the construction of a hydroelectric dam and the related arrival of new actors involved in illicit activities. In doing so, it examines the strategies for protecting their territory and livelihoods, and minimising risks at the same time at three levels: intensification, intentional transgression of rules and regulations, and the objection of the imposed system. The article concludes that the response mechanisms are informed by, and produce micropolitics of illegality and violence as well as new codes of governance. Resumen: Resistencia a desarrollos hidroelectricos en contextos de violencia y crimen organizado en Mexico Los desarrollos hidroelectricos no solo tienen consecuencias de largo alcance como la degradacion ecologica y la desaparicion de medios de vida, tambien implican procesos micropoliticos de reordenamiento territorial y productivo dentro y entre comunidades. Este articulo analiza los mecanismos de respuesta de los habitantes de una comunidad ubicada en el embalse de un proyecto hidroelectrico en Mexico, frente a la construccion de una presa hidroelectrica y la llegada de nuevos actores involucrados en actividades ilicitas. Se examinan las estrategias para proteger su territorio y su medio de vida, y minimizar los riesgos a partir de tres niveles: intensificacion, transgresion intencionada de reglas y regulaciones y estrategias de impugnacion. El articulo concluye que los mecanismos de respuesta estan informados por y producen micropoliticas de ilegalidad y violencia como nuevos codigos de gobernanza.

Perceived Police Corruption and Fear of Crime in Mexico

Estudios previos en México argumentan que la percepción de corrupción y la percepción de eficacia predicen la insatisfacción y la falta de confianza en la policía. Este artículo extiende estos estudios previos al examinar si la percepción de corrupción policial impacta el miedo al crimen entre la población adulta. Argumentamos que –más allá de los correlativos tradicionales del miedo al crimen y controlando por la intensidad de la guerra contra el crimen organizado– la evaluación de la reputación de la policía impacta la calidad de vida en la sociedad tal como lo indica el miedo al crimen. Los resultados de los modelos multinivel, basados en datos de la Encuesta Nacional de Victimización y Percepción sobre Seguridad Pública (ENVIPE, 2012–2017), confirman nuestro argumento. También hallamos que la experiencia de victimización y las incivilidades en la colonia son los principales predictores del miedo al crimen, mientras que la guerra contra el crimen organizado no mostró tener un efecto consistente.

Criminalization through Complicity: (Not) Reporting Crime in Mexico City

AbstractIn contemporary Mexico, the ideal of citizen responsibility and cooperation with authorities in crime prevention coexists with a widespread mistrust and disillusionment with the state. In this context, 90 percent of crimes go unreported to the police, a statistic that is a concern not only for law enforcement authorities but also for citizens who frequently comment that reporting is an ideal, even if few do so. Moving beyond a discussion of why people do or do not report crime, this article analyzes metapragmatic talk about (non)reporting in Mexico City's largest food market, La Central de Abasto. It shows such talk to be socially productive in the constitution of unequal publics. Merchants, workers, and authorities draw on and reproduce a language ideology in which the difficult‐to‐execute bureaucratic practice of reporting crime indexes proper citizenship even as forms of speech coded as silence or rumor index complicity with criminality. An attention to the metapragmatics of the crime report can thus expand understandings of contemporary processes of criminalization and its relationship to the constitution of unequal publics.

Delitos sexuales: un enfoque médico legal

Human sexual behavior is a very complex matter that has been the subject of interesting studies throughout history. Sex is understood as the set of somatic, functional and psychic characteristics that distinguish a man from a woman. Sexual instinct, an hereditary derivation, is moderated and repressed by the intelligence and the conscious, in addition to being governed by the social norms of the environment in which the individual relates to others; on the other hand, there are those with behavioral problems that break all established rules. In the catalog of sex crimes in Mexico there are several criminal types: sexual abuse, rape, solicitation, sexual harassment, child molesting, among others, which can be prosecuted when they conjure the legal asset of the subjects of the crime, the typical norm, its material object and normative elements that may determine the unlawfulness and, consequently, the guilt, judicable by the authorship or participation. From a medical-legal standpoint, proving a crime of this nature represents a monumental challenge, because sometimes there isn't physical evidence manifested, and other times the nature of the circumstantial evidence does not help to determine whether or not a crime was committed.

Druglords don’t stay at home: COVID-19 pandemic and crime patterns in Mexico City

ObjectiveTo investigate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on conventional crime and organized crime in Mexico City, Mexico. MethodsMexico City's Attorney General's Office reported crime data, covering domestic violence, burglary, robbery, vehicle theft, assault-battery, homicides, kidnapping, and extortion. We use an event study for the intertemporal variation across the 16 districts (municipalities) in Mexico City for 2019 and 2020. ResultsWe find a sharp decrease on crimes related to domestic violence, burglary, and vehicle theft; a decrease during some weeks on crimes related to assault-battery and extortion, and no effects on crimes related to robbery, kidnapping, and homicides. ConclusionsWhile our results show a decline in conventional crime during the COVID- 19 pandemic, organized crime remains steady. These findings have policy implications for catastrophic events around the world, as well as possible national security issues in Mexico.

The significance of age structure, education, and youth unemployment for explaining subnational variation in violent youth crime in Mexico

Violent crime in Mexico occurs at a rate that dwarfs the human costs of most contemporary civil wars, and the drug cartels responsible for the violence exercise de facto control over significant geographical territories. In this respect, the Mexican “drug wars” resemble conflicts over the control of rich natural resources in Sub-Saharan Africa and elsewhere, blurring the distinction between “political” and “social” or “criminal” violence. In the civil war literature, a young age structure has been argued to provide inexpensive rebel labor and thus increase opportunities for a rebel group to wage war against a government. Similarly, relatively large groups of “idle” young men could arguably be a factor that reduces recruitment costs for criminal enterprises through the abundant supply of youth with low opportunity cost. Acknowledging organized crime around drug trafficking as a major cause of crime and violence in Mexico, we ask whether the availability of large young male cohorts, or male “youth bulges”, low education and high youth unemployment ease the recruitment to these organizations and may contribute to explain variance in violent crime rates across Mexican states over time. Using panel data covering 32 states in Mexico during the 1997–2010 period, we find that, while a coarse measure of regional youth bulges is not associated with patterns of violent youth crime, high youth unemployment in low-education strata is, in particular in the context of large male youth bulges. These results remain robust against alternative data, sample size, estimation techniques and controls for potential endogeneity concerns.

Firearms and Injuries during Home Robberies in Mexico, 2010–2017

According to data from Mexico’s National Crime Victimization and Public Security Surveys (ENVIPE), from 2010 through 2017, home robberies involving an interaction between a victim and an aggressor occurred every two minutes and resulted in more than 257,000 injuries. The objective of this study is to explore whether victims of home robberies in Mexico are more likely to report an injury if perpetrators are armed with a gun. This analysis compiles data from ENVIPE and runs a binary logistic regression. In contrast to literature on robberies in the United States and studies on street robberies in Mexico, results show that when perpetrators are armed with guns, victims of home robberies in Mexico are more likely to report an injury, even though these injuries are rarely caused by a gunshot. These discrepancies may be explained by different factors. Unlike in the United States, most gun-related crimes in Mexico are perpetrated by organized criminal groups that obtain firearms through illegal channels. Members of these groups are prepared to engage on physical violence against their victims. Additionally, unlike street robberies, the enclosed setting of home robberies might facilitate the use of physical violence as a strategy to coerce victims and successfully obtain profits without generating public attention. Overall, perpetrators use guns as a tool to exert control and avoid resistance. These findings suggest that policies to address organized crime and halt easy access to guns should be prioritized on Mexico’s national security agenda.