By Rusi - Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies

Economic crime poses a significant threat to the UK, undermining its financial stability and security. To address this threat, in March 2023, the UK government launched the Economic Crime Plan 2,1 outlining a series of coordinated actions that should be undertaken across multiple government departments. Among these measures, the National Economic Crime Centre (NECC) was tasked with developing a people strategy to strengthen expertise and cross-sector collaboration, considering partnerships with industry and other stakeholders such as academia.2 Although there is a growing body of research on economic crime in the UK, there is scope for academia to play a more important role as a valuable resource in combatting economic crime. In October 2024, the NECC and the Home Office convened the first Economic Crime Academic Forum, hosted by RUSI’s Centre for Finance and Security. The forum aimed to bridge the gap between academic research and policymaking by fostering dialogue and identifying actionable solutions to issues including money laundering, fraud, kleptocracy and corruption. Academic participants came from a range of related disciplines and included both more established and early career academics, bringing a range of perspectives. Government attendees came from multiple government departments and law enforcement. The discussions focused on three aspects of research on economic crime: economic crime threats; the response to economic crime in terms of policy, enforcement and evaluation; and research methods and associated challenges. Due to the breadth and fluidity of the discussion, this report does not provide a linear summary of the matters raised. Instead, it details ways in which academics conduct research on economic crime, identifies gaps and challenges in research and academic engagement with government initiatives, and explores potential solutions. The forum was conducted on a non-attributable basis.

London: Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies (RUSI), 2025. 11p

By Kristina Amerhauser and Audrey Thill with support from Martin Thorley, Louise Taylor and Matt Herbert

Cyber scam operations have surged across Southeast Asia since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, evolving into a transnational organized crime crisis of staggering proportions. In this report, we expose the inner workings of scam compounds and the sophisticated criminal ecosystem sustaining them.

Repurposed hotels, casinos, and private compounds across Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines have become centres of global fraud. These compounds are operated by organized criminal networks that exploit hundreds of thousands of people, many of whom are trafficked and forced to perpetrate online scams. Victims include not only those defrauded online but also the scam workers themselves, subjected to threats, violence, sexual exploitation and extreme working conditions.

The report details how cyber scams —including ‘pig-butchering’ romance-investment scams, crypto fraud, impersonation and sextortion— now generate tens of billions of dollars annually.

These illicit operations thrive due to weak rule of law, widespread corruption, and complicity from powerful figures who operate as ‘role shifters’ —individuals who blur the lines between government, business and crime. Scam compounds often enjoy protection from local elites and security forces, and rely on global money laundering networks, including cryptocurrencies and high-risk financial services providers.

This in-depth analysis, based on extensive fieldwork and case studies, highlights the devastating economic, human rights and security implications of cyber scam operations.

The report calls for urgent, coordinated responses, including better victim identification systems, crackdowns on enablers, and reforms to protect vulnerable communities.

Geneva, SWIT: 5 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2025. 68p.

By David Jinkins, Elira Kuka, Claudio Labanca

Research on the social safety net examines its effects on recipients and their families. We show that these effects extend beyond recipients’ families. Using a regression discontinuity design and administrative data, we study a Danish policy that cut welfare benefits for refugees, increasing crime among affected individuals. Linking refugees to neighbors, we find increased crime among non-Danish neighbors, with spillovers persisting even after direct effects stabilize. Accounting for these spillovers raises the marginal value of public funds by 20%. We explore several mechanisms and find evidence consistent with peer effects among young individuals from the same country of origin.

IZA DP No. 17958

Bonn: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics , 2025. 85p.

By Daniel M. Gerstein

his report is one in a series of analyses on the effects of emerging technologies on U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) missions and capabilities. As part of this work, the research team was charged with developing a technology and risk assessment methodology for evaluating emerging technologies and understanding their implications in a homeland security context. The methodology and analyses provide a basis for DHS to better understand the emerging technologies and the risks presented.

This report describes the implications that the metaverse could have on digital crimes that involve the targeting and exploitation of children. These digital crimes are already occurring and have affected and endangered many victims and families. In an immersive online environment, such as the metaverse, opportunities for criminal activity and exploitation aimed at children could expand further.

Key Findings

Metaverse technologies — which encompass artificial intelligence systems, immersive technologies, and enabling digital technologies — will likely continue to become more available, have greater capabilities, and cost less to obtain and use. As has been the case with other digital technologies, metaverse technologies likely will have few policy, legal, ethical, or regulatory impediments constraining their development or use.

The metaverse concept is at an inflection point. How it will expand, how large it will become, and whether will it become an expansive virtual world that directly competes with the physical world remain unanswered questions. The timelines for expansion of the metaverse also remain speculative and will largely depend on use case, demand, and market forces.

Both non-metaverse and metaverse platforms have been and will continue to be used effectively to target children. Furthermore, an overlap exists between non-metaverse and metaverse platform use in luring and victimizing children, which makes it impossible to delineate the share of these abhorrent behaviors ascribable to each.

The lack of legal frameworks for crimes involving the targeting and exploitation of children in online applications will likely continue to be an issue. Clear definitions for what constitute attacks in the metaverse are not available as they are in the physical world, which hinders investigations and prosecutions. Despite the known vulnerabilities and consequences, these platforms continue to be aggressively marketed to children.

As the metaverse grows, the potential of these platforms for targeting, luring, exploiting, and victimizing children through targeted criminal activity or child exploitation will likely also grow.

Santa Monica, CA: RAND, 2025. 24p.

By Lisa Tompson, Apriel Jolliffe Simpson, Richard Wortley, Bridget O’Keeffe & Devon Polaschek

Policy efforts based on evidence about risk for re-victimisation both protect some of the most vulnerable people in society and have a good chance of reducing crime levels overall (Farrell and Pease, 1993; Grove et al., 2012; Pease et al., 2018). While research has established that the phenomenon of re-victimisation is ubiquitous, less is known about what makes some people more vulnerable to re-victimisation than others (Hamilton and Browne, 1998; Nazaretian and Fitch, 2021). Enhanced understanding of who these people are is thus crucial for developing contemporary victim-centred crime prevention policy. Victimology theories suggest that people at high risk of victimisation are typified by multiple overlapping and intersecting personal characteristics (e.g., gender, age, race/ethnicity, class, disability status, sexual identity), rather than forming homogeneous higher-order groups (e.g., delineated by a single personal characteristic; Shoham et al, 2010; Walklate, 2012). Accordingly, in this study we examined socio-demographic characteristics (e.g., gender, age, ethnicity, disability status, sexual identity) of people who were re-victimised, with an emphasis on intersectionality1. That is, we focused on identifying where the co-occurrence of socio-demographic characteristics intensified risk of re-victimisation. We use re-victimisation as an umbrella term to cover: • Poly-victimisation (i.e., >1 victimisation for different types of crime), and • Repeat-victimisation (i.e., >1 victimisation for different types of crime) for 11 different crime types. We therefore analysed 12 different types of re-victimisation over five waves of the New Zealand Crime and Victims Survey (NZCVS) in the privacy- and security-protected environment of Statistics New Zealand’s Integrated Data Infrastructure (IDI) with Conjunctive Analysis of Case Configurations. This method enabled us to position groups (i.e., combinations of characteristics) as the unit of analysis and identify where intersecting characteristics were associated with high rates of re-victimisation and isolate when particular individual characteristics were especially noteworthy. This research makes four important contributions to the evidence base on victimisation. First, while re-victimisation experiences have been studied for a range of crime types internationally (see Farrell et al., 2005), this is the first research to do so for Aotearoa New Zealand. Second, it adds to the scant evidence base on poly-victimisation. Third, it corroborates the empirical findings from other countries that risk of re-victimisation increases cumulatively (Johnson et al., 1997), hence the need for policies and practices that get upstream of the problem and prevent re-victimisation at the earliest opportunity. Fourth, this research advances knowledge on how socio-demographic characteristics intersect to elevate risk of re-victimisation. The findings are relevant for policymakers developing victimisation prevention programmes across various organisations in Aotearoa New Zealand.

Te Puna Haumaru New Zealand Institute for Security and Crime Science, The University of Waikato , 2025. 105p.

By Brandon Tregle, Michael R. Smith, Chantal Fahmy & Rob Tillyer

Hot spots policing is an effective, evidence-based strategy that reduces violent crime within small geographic units, or “hot spots,” in urban areas. A strong body of research demonstrates that these hot spots disproportionately contribute to cities’ overall crime rates. However, the existing literature has yet to answer a critical question: Can the localized crime reductions achieved through hot spots policing make a significant enough contribution to lower overall crime rates across an entire city? To address this gap, we examined seven years of violent crime data from three major Texas cities. One city underwent a two-year targeted hot spots policing intervention, while the other two cities served as counter-factual, similarly situated jurisdictions. We used interrupted time series analysis (ITSA) to examine longitudinal crime patterns in all three cities. The findings indicate that, compared to the control cities, the treatment city experienced a significant and substantial reduction in overall violent crime at the point of intervention. This decrease suggests that the hot spots intervention directly contributed to city-wide crime reduction, extending its impact beyond the designated hot spots.

Crime Sci 14, 3 (2025).

Edited by Mareile KaufmannHeidi Mork Lomell

The De Gruyter Handbook of Digital Criminology examines how digital devices spread and cut across all fields of crime and control. Providing a glossary of key theoretical, methodological and criminological concepts, the book defines and further establishes a vibrant, rapidly developing field. Focusing on central criminological phenomena, it provides a framework that will enable readers to bring their own research themes into digital environments.

UBerlin/Boston, De Gruyter, 2025. 525p.

By Cozens, P. M., Neale, R. H., Whitaker, J., Hillier, D., Graham, M.

This paper critically examines the relationship between street lighting and crime in the British city context. Prompted by recent government investment to modernize street lighting, the authors analyze how lighting affects both actual crime rates and fear of crime. It questions the reliability of current British Standards (BS 5489) that are used to determine lighting needs, pointing out discrepancies between official crime data and public perceptions of safety. Drawing on historical and contemporary research, the paper suggests that improved lighting can contribute to crime reduction and greater public confidence, but only when contextually appropriate. The review calls for a broader understanding of how urban lighting affects both real and perceived safety, arguing that current approaches may miss critical socio-environmental dynamics.

(Crime Prevention and Community Safety: An International Journal, Volume 5, Issue 2, 2003, pp. 7–24)

By David Weisburd, Laura A. Wyckoff, Justin Ready, John E. Eck, Joshua C. Hinkle, Frank Gajewski

This study addresses the longstanding concern that focused crime prevention efforts—such as policing "hot spots"—might simply displace crime to nearby areas. While displacement has been a major critique of place-based policing, empirical studies have rarely been designed specifically to assess its presence or measure its impact. The authors designed and implemented a controlled field experiment in Jersey City, New Jersey, to examine whether such displacement occurs or whether crime control efforts might instead lead to a diffusion of benefits—i.e., crime reductions in areas surrounding targeted sites. The study focused on two areas: one known for street-level drug dealing and the other for prostitution. Using over 6,000 social observations, interviews, and ethnographic fieldwork, the researchers found little evidence of spatial displacement and instead documented significant diffusion of crime control benefits to adjacent areas. The findings challenge assumptions that crime merely moves elsewhere and reinforce the effectiveness of concentrated policing in reducing crime beyond targeted hot spots.

(Criminology, Volume 44, Number 3, 2006, pp. 549–594)

By M. Dylan Spencer, Cory Schnell, Samuel E. DeWitt

Objectives: Public transportation systems experience dynamic changes over time to accommodate growing cities, yet evaluations of their impact on crime often focus on shorter, static periods. This study examines the long-term relationship between light rail expansion and crime, using a 20-year observation period in Charlotte, NC. We analyze changes in crime patterns near original, expanded, and planned light rail station locations. Methods: We conducted a quasi-experimental program evaluation of the opening of light rail stations on crime at place. We estimated Poisson regression models with fixed effects and difference in difference models to analyze crime incidents at street intersections surrounding light rail stations across varying spatial distances. Results: Our findings suggest that the expansion of the light rail system led to an increase in crime around train stations. We observe a significant intervention effect across multiple crime categories and spatial distances. These analyses suggest the effect appears stronger after the expansion of light rail service to additional train stations. Conclusions: These results have implications for a wide range of community stakeholders involved with the planning of public transportation. Given the evolving demand for transit systems, our findings highlight the need for crime prevention policies to accompany infrastructure expansion and mitigate crime.

J Exp Criminol (2025), 39p.

By Michael Townsley · Benjamin Hutchins

This article aims to provide insights regarding crime problems affecting the Australian and New Zealand (ANZ) retail sector, focusing primarily on the size and range of criminal behaviours. The research incorporated an online survey of retailers and police statistics. The study finds that the cost of retail crime increased by 28% over the last 4 years, against 25% growth in revenue. It also reveals that shoplifting remains the most significant and costly economic problem facing retailers, followed by employee theft. Additionally, fraud, notably in online channels, will remain a concern for the foreseeable future. We examine potential explanations and interpretations for retail crime through an environmental criminological lens. Increased research and involvement of researchers hold tremendous potential for reducing retail crime and preventing its growth in the future

Crime Prevention and Community Safety 26(2):1-23, 2024

By Ronald V. Clarke and Phyllis A. Schultze

This guide, one of the Problem-Solving Tools Series, summarizes knowledge about information gathering and analysis techniques that might assist police at any of the four main stages of a problem-oriented project: scanning, analysis, response, and assessment. This tool takes the mystery out of conducting research on problems by helping the user to define their problem, use technology to conduct Internet searches, get advice from experts, visit libraries, and evaluate their primary sources of information. The guide offers helpful hints to understanding and identifying responses to problems based on the research gathered.

Problem-oriented policing focuses, one-by-one, on specific problems of crime and disorder with the intention of identifying and altering the particular factors giving rise to each problem. The problems addressed in problem-oriented policing tend not to be confined to just a few police jurisdictions, but are more widely experienced. It is therefore likely that some other agency has tried to solve the kind of problem that you are dealing with now. Or perhaps some researcher has studied a similar problem and learned things that might be useful to your work. You could save yourself a lot of time and effort by finding out what they did and why. In particular, you can learn which responses seemed to be effective and which were not. So long as they made available a written report of their work, this guide will help you discover what they did. Having found out what others have done, you cannot simply copy what they did. You will have to adapt any successful responses they used to your own situation. This guide does not tell you how to analyze and understand your own problem.† It will only help you to profit from the work of those who have dealt with a similar problem. It is designed to take you as quickly as possible to the information you need and to help you evaluate and make the best use of this information. In doing this, it assumes: • You are familiar with problem-oriented policing. The guide assumes that a problem-solving model, such as SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, Assessment), is guiding your project. The guide will assist you at the Analysis and Response stages by pointing you to the possible cause of the problem you are tackling and to the ways you might respond. • You are willing to consider new responses to the problem. Rarely does police enforcement alone solve a persisting problem. To bring a lasting improvement, it is almost always necessary to modify the conditions giving rise to the problem, such as a lack of security or surveillance. Whatever measures you adopt must be carefully matched to the nature of your problem. Many of the measures are likely to be outside your experience and, indeed, that of most police officers. So, you need to learn about the ones that have been successfully used before in dealing with the kind of problem you face. While it is not usually recommended that a police agency blindly adopt another agency's responses to a problem, neither is it a good idea to be blind to what others have done. The key is to understand whether lessons learned elsewhere would apply under the conditions that exist for your problem. • You have limited time. The guide assumes that you have limited time to research best practice and that you want results quickly. You are not writing an academic paper where you might be faulted for missing a particular article or book. You are simply trying to find information that will help you with the practical task of dealing with your problem. For this reason, the guide does not provide a comprehensive description of all information sources, whether on the Internet † or in libraries. † Comprehensive descriptions are provided by Benamati et al. (1998) and Nelson (1997). Rather, it is intended to help you find two main categories of information relevant to your task: (1) articles by researchers who have studied the problem you are facing and, (2) reports of police projects dealing with the problem. The first category of information will help you understand the factors giving rise to your problem; the second will help you find effective responses. Later in the project, you might wish • You have Internet access. Nowadays, it is very difficult to research a problem without having access to the Internet. The guide assumes that you have this access and that you are familiar with searching for information on the Internet. (Indeed, you might have found this guide on the Internet.) The computer you use will need † a copy of Adobe Reader, which allows you to read and download articles in portable document format (.pdf) that you find at websites on the Internet. Unless your computer has a high speed connection, this process of visiting websites and reading and downloading material can be slow and frustrating. Most computers in libraries have high speed connections and you can usually pay to obtain print copies of the material you have downloaded

Problem-Oriented Guides for Police Problem-Solving Tools Series No. 2

Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, 2005. 72p.

By Sung Hwan Joo, Doyun Koo, Stephen J. Watts

With the notable recent population growth of the Asian population in the US, the need for scholarly attention to offending patterns of this population has correspondingly increased. Utilizing waves of 1 to 4 of the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health (Add Health) (n=9412), the current study examines the offending trajectories among Asian populations in the US, with particular attention to the distinct experiences and offending patterns between US-born and non-USborn individuals. Employing group-based trajectory modeling (GBTM) and multivariate regression, the study reveals distinct patterns of offending between Asian and non-Asian populations, while highlighting significant variations in offending trajectories between US-born and non-US-born Asian populations. Results indicate that social control factors, such as social bonds and self-control, have varied influences across US-born and non-US-born Asian populations. Overall, the findings point to the importance of considering how distinct institutional adjustment processes and identity negotiations shape offending trajectories among Asian populations in the US. The discussion focuses on how the current study contributes to a deeper understanding of the complexities facing Asian populations in the US, suggesting future studies incorporate institutional adjustment processes to elucidate Asian offending trajectories further.

Journal of Developmental and Life-Course Criminology (2024) 10:501–524

By Amy Finkelstein, Sarah Miller, and Katherine Baicker

  Those involved with the criminal justice system have disproportionately high rates of mental illness and substance-use disorders, prompting speculation that health insurance, by improving treatment of these conditions, could reduce crime. Using the 2008 Oregon Health Insurance Experiment, which randomly made some low-income adults eligible to apply for Medicaid, we find no statistically significant impact of Medicaid coverage on criminal charges or convictions. These null effects persist for high-risk subgroups, such as those with prior criminal cases and convictions or mental health conditions. In the full sample, our confidence intervals can rule out most quasi-experimental estimates of Medicaid’s crime-reducing impact.  

WORKING PAPER · NO. 2024-158

Chicago: University of Chicago, The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, 2024. 49p.

By Jens Ludwig and Kevin Schnepel

Do jobs and income-transfer programs affect crime? The answer depends on why one is asking the question, which shapes what one means by “crime.” Many studies focus on understanding why overall crime rates vary across people, places, and time; since 80% of all crimes are property offenses, that’s what this type of research typically explains. But if the goal is to understand what to do about the crime problem, the focus will instead be on serious violent crimes, which account for the majority of the social costs of crime. The best available evidence suggests that policies that reduce economic desperation reduce property crime (and hence overall crime rates) but have little systematic relationship to violent crime. The difference in impacts surely stems in large part from the fact that most violent crimes, including murder, are not crimes of profit but rather crimes of passion – including rage. Policies to alleviate material hardship, as important and useful as those are for improving people’s lives and well-being, are not by themselves sufficient to also substantially alleviate the burden of crime on society.

WORKING PAPER · NO. 2024-42

Chicago: University of Chicago, The Becker Friedman Institute for Economics, 2024. 29p.

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Cybercrime poses serious threats and financial costs to individuals and businesses in the United States and worldwide. Reports of data breaches and ransomware attacks on governments and businesses have become common, as have incidents against individuals (e.g., identity theft, online stalking, and harassment). Concern over cybercrime has increased as the internet has become a ubiquitous part of modern life. However, comprehensive, consistent, and reliable data and metrics on cybercrime still do not exist - a consequence of a shortage of vital information resulting from the decentralized nature of relevant data collection at the national level.

Cybercrime Classification and Measurement addresses the absence credible cybercrime data and metrics. This report provides a taxonomy for the Federal Bureau of Investigation for the purpose of measuring different types of cybercrime, including both cyber-enabled and cyber-dependent crimes faced by individuals and businesses, and considers the needs for its periodic revision. 

Washington DC: National Academies Press, 2025. 259p.

By Giorgia Cascone, Caterina Paternoster, Michele Riccardi , Viktoriia Poltoratskaya, Bence Tóth: Claudia Baez-Camargo, Jacopo Costa

• Corruption is a complex and multifaced phenomenon, often defined broadly as “the misuse of public office for private gain” [1]. Despite the absence of consensus on its definition [2,3], scholars, practitioners, and policymakers acknowledge corruption as a longstanding issue heavily affecting nations around the world [3]. Its negative impacts are extensive, undermining civil, political, economic, social, and cultural rights [4]. • The FALCON Project is a three-year Horizon Europe research project which will develop new data-driven indicators and tools to strengthen the global fight against corruption by following an evidence-based, multiactor and interdisciplinary approach. • Specifically, FALCON covers four corruption domains: Corruption and fraud in public procurement; Circumvention of sanctions by "kleptocrats" and oligarchs; Border corruption; Other high-level corruption cases • This Policy Brief summarizes the main results of the analysis carried out on these four corruption domains under Work Package 2 of the FALCON Project. The document is structured as follows

Policy Brief of Project FALCON.

Milan: Transcrime – Joint Research Centre on Innovation and Crime, 2025. 22p.

By William P. McClanahan, Daniel S. Nagin, Marco Otte, Peter Wozniak, Jean-Louis van Gelder

A central tenet of the criminal decision-making literature is that perceptions of the environment shape decisions. Yet the underlying mechanisms linking environmental features to perception remain mostly untested. Those that have been tested have relied on methods that are either correlational or have limited generalizability. We aimed to fill this gap by harnessing the power of virtual reality. Using burglary as a case study, incarcerated residential burglars with varying degrees of proficiency (N = 160) explored a virtual neighborhood with houses that differed in features related to the risks and rewards of burglary. In support of our preregistered hypotheses, offenders adjust their perceptions in response to environmental features related to risks and rewards. Moreover, proficiency modifies these perceptions, with more proficient offenders believing they are less likely to get caught and seen and, as a result, more likely to break into a house. We support our statistical findings with rich data from qualitative interviews.

Criminology, Volume 63, Issue 1, February 2025, Pages 155-182

By Robynn S Cox, Jamein P. Cunningham

We estimate the effectiveness of the Edward Byrne Memorial State and Local Law Enforcement Assistance Program, a grant program authorized under the 1988 Anti-Drug Abuse Act to combat illicit drug abuse and to improve the criminal justice system, on racial bias in policing. Funds for the Byrne Grant program could be used for a variety of purposes to combat drug crimes, as well as violent and other drug related crimes. The event-study analysis suggests that implementation of this grant resulted in an increase in police hiring and an increase in arrests for drug trafficking. Post-treatment effect implies a 107 percent increase in white arrests for drug sales compared to a 44 percent increase for blacks 6 years after the first grant is received. However, due to historical racial differences in drug arrests, the substantial increase in white drug arrest still results in large racial disparities in drug arrests. This is supported by weighted least squares regression estimates that show, for every $100 increase in Byrne Grant funding, arrests for drug trafficking increased by roughly 22 per 100,000 white residents and by 101 arrests per 100,000 black residents. The results provide strong evidence that federal involvement in narcotic control and trafficking lead to an increase in drug arrests; disproportionally affecting blacks

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Volume 40, Issue 1, Winter 2021, Pages 191-224

By Thomas Grisaffi, Linda Farthing, Kathryn Ledebur, Maritza Paredes, Alvaro Pastor

Between 2006-2019, Bolivia emerged as a world leader in formulating a participatory, non-violent model to gradually limit coca production in a safe and sustainable manner while simultaneously offering farmers realistic economic alternatives to coca. Our study finds that not only has this model reduced violence, but it has effectively expanded social and civil rights in hitherto marginal regions. In contrast, Peru has continued to conceptualize ‘drugs’ as a crime and security issue. This has led to U.S.-financed forced crop eradication, putting the burden onto impoverished farmers, generating violence and instability. At the request of farmers, the Peruvian government has made a tentative move towards implementing one aspect of Bolivia’s community control in Peru. Could it work? We address this question by focusing on participatory development with a special emphasis on the role of local organizations and the relationship between growers and the state. Drawing on long-term ethnographic fieldwork, interviews, focus group discussions and secondary research, we find that for community control to have any chance of success in Peru, grassroots organizations must be strengthened and grower trust in the state created. The study also demonstrates that successful participatory development in drug crop regions is contingent on land titling and robust state investment, which strengthens farmer resolve to participate so as to avoid a return to the repression of the past.

World Development, 2021, 14p.