Book Review: Trading life: organ trafficking, illicit networks, and exploitation by Seán Columb
| Author | Matthew Light |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/13624806221115269 |
| Published date | 01 November 2022 |
| Date | 01 November 2022 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
consider how these findings apply elsewhere. For example, varying levels of ambient vio-
lence did not influence the reform/non-reform outcomes in the cases González studied.
Yet because the whole region displays extremely high levels of violent crime, it may
experience a “ceiling effect”in which violence does not vary enough to be significant.
Thus, it is not clear whether this finding would be robust in regions with less criminal
violence, where variation among cases might be more meaningful. Likewise, scholars
of US policing may be surprised that levels of police-on-civilian killings are far greater
in many South American countries than in the United States, raising the question of
whether the dynamics of reform might be different in countries or regions where the
problem is less extreme than in González’s cases. Nonetheless, González’sfindings
hold an important implication for the United States. Given that her pathway to democratic
police reform requires free and fair elections in which socially disadvantaged voters can
express their demands for reform effectively, counter-majoritarian institutions and
restrictive voting policies in the United States may impede the creation of effective
reform coalitions. If so, police reform joins a host of issues, such as abortion and gun
control, in which the defects of US democracy systematically thwart the will of majorities
of citizens.
In closing, this rigorous study adds significantly to our still-evolving understanding of
the complex causal relationship between political regimes and police behaviour. As
González finds, that relationship is far from deterministic, and is mediated by a host of
complex institutional and situational factors that transcend regime types and regime
transitions.
References
Light M, Prado, MM and Wang Y. (2015) “Policing following political and social transitions:
Russia, Brazil, and China compared.”Theoretical Criminology 19(2): 216–238.
Wang Y (2014) “Empowering the police: How the Chinese communist party manages its coercive
leaders.”The China Quarterly 219: 625–648.
Seán Columb. Trading life: organ trafficking, illicit networks, and exploitation. Stanford, California:
Stanford University Press, 2020. ISBN 9781503612556. Price USD 28.00 (paperback). 196 pages.
Reviewed by: Matthew Light, Associate Professor, Centre for Criminology and Sociolegal Studies,
University of Toronto, 14 Queen’s Park Crescent West, Toronto, Ontario M5S 3K9 Canada
Seán Columb’s study of Egypt’s illicit market in organ transplantation works on many
levels. It is simultaneously an empirically rich exploration of the organ trade, a fascinat-
ing account of that trade’s transformation from a relatively non-violent aspect of the
informal economy into a form of violent ‘organised crime’, and a thoughtful reflection
on the challenges of regulating a highly stigmatised and potentially exploitative economic
transaction. The monograph should interest a wide range of audiences within crimin-
ology, including scholars wishing to gain additional perspective on related phenomena
such as migrant smuggling and the sex trade.
686 Theoretical Criminology 26(4)
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