Crime and the Life Course in Another America: Collective Trajectory in Mexican Drug Cartel Dominated Communities

Abstract

This article seeks to resolve inconsistencies with life course theory (LCT) that we observed in our ethnographic research on life in multiple highly impoverished communities in Mexico where residents are involved heavily with drug cartels. The theoretical areas examined are some of the core aspects of LCT: trajectory; the age-graded process; transitions; state dependence; effects from other institutions (religion, employment, family) on desistance; and, ultimately, why desistance and persistence differ in these Mexican communities compared with LCT expectations. Our results indicate that the weak State and drug trafficking organizations’ dominance create structural conditions in which other institutions such as religion, family, and employment adapt using collectivism found in Mexican culture. Using the concept of collective trajectory (CT) to bridge the differences between our findings and LCT, we highlight how crime during the life course plays out differently in these more collectivistic communities.

Keywords:

• Life course theory
• collective trajectory
• Mexico
• drug trafficking organizations

Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank Elena Aozola, senior investigator at the Centre for Advanced Studies and Research in Social Anthropology in Mexico City, Rodrigo Cortina Cortés, independent researcher in Mexico City, Anna Matuchniak-Mystkowska, Tomasz Ferenc, Marcin Kotras, Andrzej Piotrowski, University of Lodz, and Marta Chomczyńska as translator. We would also like to express our appreciation to the editor and anonymous reviewers from the Justice Quarterly for their comments on earlier drafts of the manuscript.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Piotr A. Chomczyński

Piotr A. Chomczyński, PhD, an associate professor at the University of Lodz—a scholarship holder of the European Eurica program at the Instituto de Investigaciones Sociales at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, where he conducted ethnographic research on organized crime. Working for the Comisión de Derechos Humanos in Mexico, he monitored the situation of detainees and correctional facilities in Mexico. Ministerial Scholarship Holder for Young Eminent Scientists, winner of the scientific awards of the Polish Academy of Sciences, and the Rector of the University of Lodz. Manager and member of a team of numerous domestic and foreign research projects (United States, Ecuador, Germany, Spain, Norway, Sweden, Portugal, Ukraine, Mexico). He conducted classes in the sociology of deviance at Pennsylvania State University in the United States and classes in qualitative research methodology for PhD students at Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He specializes in qualitative methods of sociological research on deviance, adult and juvenile crime, domestic violence and drug organized crime. His scientific interests concern ethnography of Mexican drug trafficking organization. Currently Piotr Chomczynski is a team member of the CRIMLA project supervised by Sveinung Sandberg and financed by The Research Council of Norway.

Timothy W. Clark

Timothy W. Clark, PhD, is an experienced scholar and criminal justice practitioner whose expertise is in group violence and violent groups. In these topic areas, he has published over a dozen articles and book chapters, presented at a large number of conferences, and conducted training to U.S. and international law enforcement agencies. He has also spent over a dozen years working for the U.S. federal government in various positions focused on countering transnational organized crime. He earned his PhD in Sociology in 2006 from the University of Minnesota, a Master’s Degrre from the University of Georgia, an undergraduate degree from Ohio University, and is a graduate of the U.S. Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College. He has served on faculty at University of Florida’s Center Latin American Studies and their Department of Sociology, Criminology & Law, the Southern Illinois University Carbondale, the University of North Alabama, and Valparaiso University. He is currently adjunct faculty at the University of Texas at El Paso’s Department of Criminal Justice. He has been a recipient of the MacArthur Interdisciplinary Program on Global Change’s Predissertation Field Research Grant, Anna Welsch Bright Memorial Research Award, and the Phelps-Stokes Fellowship.