This paper reviews some of the main research on drug law enforcement in Brazil since the 2006 Drug Law came into force, noting a clear and constant pattern of police and judicial focus directed at retail drug trafficking, decisively impacting current incarceration rates. It then examines the...

This is a review of the 2020 IASOC Prize Winner Intimate Crimes: Kidnapping, Gangs and Trust in Mexico City by Rolando Ochoa. Ochoa provides a masterful account of how private citizens understand risk, as kidnapping continues to be a significant problem in Mexico, and manage their private...

This review critically engages with the debate on the importance of corruption for illicit tobacco trade. It proposes to solve the disagreement in the literature by advancing a nuanced analysis of how different types of corruption are linked to various forms of illicit tobacco trade. It...

n recent decades, the global debate on gun control has been prominent, with many countries adopting more restrictive policies. Brazil followed this trend by implementing stringent measures in 2003; however, the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro in 2019 introduced normative changes aimed at facilitating...

The aim of this policy commentary is two-fold. First, to examine new historical research regarding the political, cultural, and social drivers informing the design and implementation of Mexico’s ‘war on drugs’ - a set of state policies centered on punitive and militarized responses towards...

Drawing on the case of the Cúcuta Metropolitan Area, this article explores how illicit cross-border flows and territorial conflicts shape urban space and security at the Colombia-Venezuela border. Conceptually, it approaches the border as infrastructure (Dijstelbloem 2021) and brings Idler’s...

Against the common perception of sand as an abundant, even inexhaustible material, the idea of a "global sand crisis" has emerged as a public issue over the past decade. A 2014 report published under the patronage of the UNEP, followed by a more comprehensive publication in 2019, has been...