vol. 51 núm. 2 (2009): enero - diciembre

This article is intended to make known the work of sociologist Émile Durkheim, revolutionary in its time, as it considers criminals as regulating agents of social life who, in turn, dynamize social life and play a role within the community. consequently, the first chapter refers to the three most important texts that explain his theory; the second chapter shows the criticism made of such work; and the third chapter poses a reformulation of the central thesis in Durkheim’s thought.

This article derives from a research aimed at sketching the genealogy of organized crime and bases its theoretical and methodological foundations on some of the “strong ideas” in Michel Foucault’s work. This article also specifically shows an “archeological” analysis of the discourse of organized crime, in order to understand its conditions of possibility and power of affirmation expressed in practices conducive to penal punishment.

This article discusses the relation between liberty and security and the role fears play when obstructing their articulation. The central thesis argues that the higher the impact fears would have on society, the more restricted the expressions of liberty and security tend to be, thus deteriorating democratic principles. The argument goes from the features fears currently have to their causes and consequences. This article moves within a theoretical argumentation, whose empirical findings shall be the object of research in a subsequent phase. Data will show the directionality of priority attention. Conclusions lead to a discussion upon the role of the State and its institutions and upon the role civil and community organizations play towards the orientation of public policies.

This work is aimed at making known forensic physical anthropology in Mexico. This work was carried out through the consultation of various written sources, which allowed us to know that such activity began with the investigations of m.d. Francisco Martínez Baca and m.d. Manuel Vergara, at the former Puebla jail in Mexico City, and m.d. Ignacio Fernández Ortigoza, at the former Belem jail in Mexico City, at the end of the xix century and at the beginning of the XX century, whose studies are based on the so-called “criminal anthropology”. Already in the xx century, we have the works of Vargas, Alva and Luján, and the one of Arturo Romano Pacheco carried out at the Procuraduría General de Justicia del Distrito Federal from 1975, a date that can be considered as the end of old-fashioned criminal anthropology and the beginning of modern forensic physical anthropology. This work also presents the contributions of Mexican physical anthropologists and students of physical anthropology at the Escuela Nacional de Antropología e Historia to forensic physical anthropology. Their works have not only helped to solve cases but have also contributed to the teaching and divulging of this subject.

Among basic human rights, we recognize security as a condition that currently awakens social, institutional and personal preoccupation owing to its deterioration. The objective of this research is to explore the youths’ standing before urban security, In this sense work was carried out with adults to find out what the social representations were regarding the youths’ role in criminal activities; and with youths regarding the standing of crime victims, the effects of the said crimes and the way the victims faced them, after carrying out the urban Insecurity survey (CIu for its spanish acronym). This data was completed with the results from their personal and social construction of fear before the probability of their becoming a victim, as experienced by youths from a san Luis school located in the city’s nearby suburbs. samples were taken from male and female adults and youths, the latter high school and college students, who were compared with peers from different districts at the last stage of the research. The conclusions reached are associated to the institutions’ role, the mass media’s incidence in the proliferation of such a sense of urban insecurity shown by those who have not been victims of any crime; the women’s higher vulnerability in comparison to their male peers; and the necessary participation of the state to acknowledge the youths as a potentially vulnerable group before crime.

This article covers the phenomenon of illegal trafficking of immigrants from Mexico to the United States, which together with illicit drug trafficking, has led the us government to establish more severe control and contention measures – mainly in the past decades – by reinforcing border surveillance. In this sense, the following goals were set: to establish links between migration policies geared to reinforcing said border and increased crime activity associated to illegal trafficking of immigrants and other types of illicit activities; to highlight the risks involved in the proliferation of offenses made by criminal groups operating illegal trafficking of immigrants; and to point out the multiple victimization international immigrants go through.