Social distancing and stay-at-home measures provided scientists with a natural experiment to study social phenomena that hinge precisely on human mobility and contact — including criminal activity. A study by Center for the U.S. and Mexico experts and co-authors explores the relationship between COVID-19 and criminal activity in Mexico.
Sean Fiorella, Tony Payan, Daniel Potter, Rodrigo Montes de OcaJuly 23, 2023
Gun shows are public gatherings where licensed gun dealers and private gun owners use formal and informal venues to exchange information or sell and buy firearms, accessories, and ammunition. A major challenge is that gun shows, unlike established business locations, can be considered gray zones where regulatory loopholes facilitate the movement of legal firearms to illegal domains both domestically and internationally.
The author proposes a model that explains how stressors such as constant uncertainty and legal vulnerability can affect the mental health of undocumented immigrants — and how, paradoxically, they can also make migrant communities more resilient. Learn more in Current Opinion in Psychology.
Largely informal networks of binational cooperation between government actors are effective, but depend on the determination and ability of individuals to create and maintain them. As a result, this form of binational cooperation is vulnerable to variables in personality and changing political winds.
U.S. studies suggest that the Uber ride-sharing service may reduce alcohol-related driving fatalities. This study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health, examines the effect of Uber on traffic deaths in South Africa, where driving fatalities are twice the global average and over 60 percent are alcohol-related.
Jonathan Yinhao Huang, Farhan Majid, Mark DakuJanuary 18, 2019
Ciudad Juárez, across from El Paso, Texas, suffered an unprecedented downfall into violence and chaos between 2007 and 2012. It came to be known in 2010 as “the most dangerous city in the world.” What can cause a city to spiral downward into bloodshed and turmoil in the way that Ciudad Juárez did? This article makes the argument that the city's descent into violence and chaos is the result of a number of poor decisions made over the course of the 40 years preceding the bloodshed of the years under examination.
Nearly 50,000 unaccompanied minors from Central America and Mexico have poured across the United States’ border with Mexico in the past eight months. While Mexico, the U.S. and the Central American sending countries share responsibility for contributing to the recent surge, they also share the responsibility to find a solution.
Theory-building in border studies would go further if closer attention were paid to methods instead of the nature of borders and borderlands. Careful attention to methods would help make variables more amenable to theory building.
