Tyrannical Trade: Assessing NAFTA as a Criminogenic Policy

• In Event: Corporate Crime

Abstract

NAFTA has been the subject of widespread scrutiny including numerous scholarly studies, NGO reports, and journalistic accounts that document a wide range of outcomes attributable to NAFTA. These outcomes run the gamut from economic growth to destruction of agriculture. Objective assessment of NAFTA and its implications is difficult because most sources tend to be one-sided – either for or against NAFTA. Utilizing the tremendous amount of literature on NAFTA, this paper investigates NAFTA's effects on Mexican citizens, primarily its indigenous population and individuals in the agricultural sector. Using the concept of a criminogenic policy, a bi- or multinational agreement that leads to social harm, NAFTA is assessed. NAFTA appears to have contributed to at least five broad social harms: (1) deteriorating economic conditions (i.e., increased unemployment, poverty, and inequality); (2) destroying the agricultural sector; (3) intensifying the drug war; (4) accentuating migration; and (5) environmental degradation.

Author

• Daniel J Patten, McMurry University