BFI Student Lunch Series – Bad Medicine: Why Different Systems of Organized Crime Demand Different Solutions

Boxed lunches were provided.

BFI’s Student Lunch Series invites prominent speakers to engage undergraduate and graduate students in discussions on economics. The talks highlight the practical use of economics for answering real-world questions pertinent to businesses and policy makers.

International drug trafficking dominates the conversation on organized crime, but equally common and serious are urban systems of organized crime—criminal groups focused not on exports or transshipment, but on dominating local markets, neighborhoods, and politics. The problem for policymakers is that systems of organized crime are not alike. There is no one blueprint or general solution. How to make sense of this complex situation? Chris Blattman, Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at the Harris School of Public Policy, described how crime is organized in three cities—Chicago, Medellín, and San Salvador—and offered evidence for a range of policy responses.

PHOTOS