Organised crime and drug markets: recent contributions from Latin America academia

This thematic paper summarises the academic research from Latin America published in 2018 on public policies to address organised crime related to drug trafficking.

These publications have called for a rethinking of state responses that use of force, which can lead to human rights violations. The evidence shows that the most effective policies to reduce violence in the fight against organise crime, are those that manage to frame the use of state force in social programmes. Therefore, it is urgent that we better understand the context and dynamics of organised crime in relation to economic and cultural dimensions. Furthermore, the complexity of the problem means that it is necessary to develop public policies for impact and measurement from a long-term perspective.