Book Review: Illegal Drugs, Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America

• Date: 01 September 2018
• Published date: 01 September 2018
• Author: Georgios A. Antonopoulos
• DOI: 10.1177/1057567718775167
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews
International Criminal Justice Review
2018, Vol. 28(3) 275-279
Book Reviews
ª 2018 Georgia State University
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Bergman, M. (2018). Illegal Drugs, Drug Trafficking and Violence in Latin America. New York, NY: Springer. 168 pp.
$89.99 (hardback), ISBN 978-3-319-73152-0.
Reviewed by: Georgios A. Antonopoulos, Department of Criminology, Law and Policing, SSSHL, Teesside
University, Middlesbrough, United Kingdom
DOI: 10.1177/1057567718775167
The work under review, authored by Marcelo Bergman, describes the main patterns and trends of
drug trafficking in Latin America and analyses its political, economic, and social effects on several
countries over the last 20 years. Although there is significant research and literature on illegal drug
use, trade, and policy in North America, Europe, and Asia, comparatively less is known on the
impact of illegal drugs in world drug market source countries. A professor and director of the Center
for Latin American Studies on Insecurity and Violence at the National University of Tres de Febrero
in Argentina, Bergman previously worked for the United Nations Program for Development in
Buenos Aires and as professor and researcher at the Center for Economic Research and Teaching
in Mexico from 2001 to 2012. This diverse firsthand experience of drug-related issues has been
instrumental to the completion of the end product, which is a revised, updated, and expanded version
of a book originally written in Spanish and published in 2016 (see Bergman, 2016).
Excluding the introduction (Chapter 1) in which the author offers a brief summary of the book,
the work is based on four parts comprising of nine chapters: Part I—The business of drugs and the
political economy of narcotics (Chapters 2–4), Part II—The threat of illegal drugs and criminal
justice system response (Chapters 5 and 6), Part III—Policy options (Chapters 7 and 8), and Part
IV—Case Studies (Chapters 9 and 10). Alongside the geographical thread that is Latin American,
Bergman moves deftly from one chapter to the other. In Chapter 2, the author offers an account of
the demand of illegal drugs, as well as an account of illegal drug markets and violence, and the
reasons for prohibition of drugs in the region. Chapter 3 provides a brief introduction on the use of
illegal drugs in Latin America, whereas Chapter 4 focuses on the business structure of illegal drugs
while paying particular attention to violence associated with drug cartels.
In Chapter 5, Bergman explores the relationship between drugs, crime, corruption, and violence,
and in Chapter 6, he looks into official/criminal justice system efforts to combat drug use and
trafficking in the region. Chapters 7 and 8 provide an overview of the varying impacts of different
drugs and discuss public policy options in relation to illegal drugs (“prohibition,” “legalization,” and
“public health damage control”). Here, the author looks into information and evidence beyond Latin
America, and the text is peppered with research evidence from the United States, the United
Kingdom, Portugal, Australia, and the Netherlands. Finally, in Chapters 9 and 10, Bergman provides
analyses on two specific cases, Argentina and Mexico, respectively.
In the book’s back cover, it is stated that the book’s aim is to provide readers with an introductory
text on the illegal drug problem in the region of Latin America. Bergman’s book is ambitious in
scope as in Chapters 2–6 and 9 and 10, it roams widely in Latin America offering data and accounts
and information from the “usual suspects” that are Colombia and Mexico to Argentina, Brazil, and
Chile—among others—which have commanded relatively scant...