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Crime Law Soc Change (2009) 52:253273
DOI 10.1007/s10611-009-9195-z
Richard Snyder & Angelica Duran-Martinez
Published online: 5 March 2009# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2009
Abstract Illegality does not necessarily breed violence. The relationship between illicit markets and violence depends on institutions of protection. When state-sponsored protection rackets form, illicit markets can be peaceful. Conversely, the breakdown of state-sponsored protection rackets, which may result from well-meaning policy reforms intended to improve law enforcement, can lead to violence. The cases of drug trafficking in contemporary Mexico and Burma show how a focus on the emergence and breakdown of state-sponsored protection rackets helps explain variation in levels of violence both within and across illicit markets.
What is the relationship between illegality and violence? According to the conventional wisdom, illegality and violence are directly connected: the less legal an activity, the more likely it is to be associated with violence, whereas the more legal the activity, the lower the likelihood of violence. This view is validated by high-profile illicit and violent markets, such as illegal drugs in Colombia and Afghanistan. Still, licit markets are not necessarily peaceful. As seen in Table 1 diamond mining in the West African countries of Sierra Leone and Liberia and emerald mining in Colombia are associated with high levels of violence.1 Likewise, illicit markets are not necessarily violent. Whereas in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya, and Zimbabwe, wildlife poaching is carried out mainly by armed gangs and military units and produces frequent violence, in Namibia and South Africa poachers employ violence only sporadically [25]. Why is the same illicit activity, poaching, associated with frequent violence in some countries but not others? Moreover, the level of violence associated
1On the complex relationship between so-called blood diamonds and violence, see Snyder and Bhavnani [22]; and Snyder [21].
R. Snyder (*) : A. Duran-Martinez
Department of Political Science, Brown University, Providence, RI, USA e-mail: [email protected]
A. Duran-Martineze-mail: [email protected]
Does illegality breed violence? Drug trafficking and state-sponsored protection rackets
254 R. Snyder, A. Duran-Martinez
Table 1 Legality and violence
Violence
High Low
Legality No Illegal, high violence Illegal, low violence
Drug trafficking: Burma before 1990s,
Colombia, Mexico after mid 1990s
Poaching: Namibia, South Africa
Yes Legal, high violence Legal, low violence
Diamond mining: Liberia, Sierra Leone