Subnational Politics of Responses to Illicit Trafficking and Criminal Violence

Session Submission Type: Full Paper Panel

Session Description

In recent years, political scientists have integrated research on criminal violence and illicit trafficking into the discipline, linking to well-established work on corruption, governance, and civil wars. Yet, much of this work primarily focuses on criminal violence rather than holistically engaging with the societal and political processes that encourage or dissuade criminal activity. Evaluating trends in criminal violence requires robust and creative data collection, which in turn allows for a greater understanding of institutional constraints and government incentives. Panel participants study different facets of the relationship between government, civil society, and criminal actors, using original data to explore the complexities of confronting criminal violence subnationally.

The first two papers assess the subnational governance of illicit trafficking. Using evidence gathered from ethnographic fieldwork in Honduras and Mexico, Blume and Sauls address the complex interconnections between Indigenous and Afro-Caribbean territorial groups, narco-trafficker networks, and the international and national efforts to respond to the illicit drug trade; they analyze how the narco-economy influences on-the-ground, networked forms of territorial governance. Pinson examines the political incentives for governments to allow illicit firearms trafficking; she tests her theory on the distributional consequences of illicit markets using evidence from elite interviews and subnational data in two case pairs, Jamaica-Grenada and Solomon Islands-Papua New Guinea.

The second two papers assess subnational criminal violence in Mexico. Alcocer et. al present an intensive original data collection project focused on mapping criminal organizations in Mexico; using a systematic and transparent process, they combine several methods and sources of data to produce a panel dataset on the locations and activities of criminal groups. This technique shows the potential to collect similar data in other contexts, providing a robust, new direction for research on the politics of criminal violence. Signoret analyzes the role of the state in the termination of criminal conflict; he leverages new data sets to provide evidence in northern Mexican cities on two pathways for criminal conflict to decline.

In combination, this panel seeks to continue the discussion of the subnational politics of government responses to illicit trafficking and criminal violence. Panelists use a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, all building from extensive original data collection. While these papers focus primarily on Latin America and the Caribbean, the theories and data collection processes included can inform similar studies in other regions.

Sub Unit

• Division 12: Comparative Politics of Developing Countries

Chair

• Abby B. Cordova University of Notre Dame

Discussants

• Regina A. Bateson University of Ottawa

• Eduardo Moncada Barnard College, Columbia University

Individual Presentations

• Titling Lands and Trafficking Cocaine - Laura Blume, University of Nevada Reno; Laura Sauls, College of the Holy Cross

• Trafficking in Paradise: Why Governments Allow Illegal Firearms in Island Nations - Lauren Pinson, University of Texas at Dallas

• Mapping Criminal Organizations - Marco Alcocer, University of California, San Diego; Cecilia Farfan Mendez, University of California, San Diego; Brian J. Phillips, University of Essex; Víctor Manuel Sánchez Valdés, Universidad Autónoma de Coahuila; Patrick Joseph Signoret, Princeton University; Fernanda Sobrino, University of Chicago

• Cohesion, Capacity, or Stability? The State’s Role in Ending Criminal Conflict. - Patrick Joseph Signoret, Princeton University