Transnational organized crime and COVID: A book review essay
| Author | Nathan P Jones |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/26338076221135329 |
| Published date | 01 March 2023 |
| Date | 01 March 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
Transnational organized crime
and COVID: A book review
essay
Nathan P Jones
Associate Professor of Security Studies, College of Criminal Justice, Sam
Houston State University, Huntsville, Texas, USA
Abstract
COVID-19, Gangs, and Conflict. Edited by John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker. A Small Wars
Journal–El Centro Reader. Bloomington: Xlibris. 2020. Photos. Endnotes. Contributor
biographies. Prologue. Foreword. Postscript. Afterword. Selected References. pp. 153.
Paperback $12.17. Kindle $3.99. Criminal Contagion: How Mafias, Gangsters and Scammers
Profit from a Pandemic. By Tuesday Reitano and Mark Shaw. London: Hurst and Company,
2021. ISBN 9781787384460. Notes. Index. pp. 320. Hardcover $26.95.
Keywords
Transnational organized crime, COVID-19, drug policy, border security, social network
analysis, illicit drug networks
Date received: 15 September 2022; accepted: 26 September 2022
The COVID-19 pandemic, which began in China in 2019 and which the World Health
Organization (WHO) declared a pandemic in March 2020, has had profound effects on the
global economy, governance, health, and crime. The world continues to feel the ramifications
of the pandemic, which persists as a health crisis, and the innumerable unintended conse-
quences it has generated.
Thepandemichashadmyriadeffects.In2022, its strain on supply-chains led to infla-
tion, product shortages, and continued panic buying. These outcomes exposed the weak-
nesses of an economic system based on “just in time delivery.”The pandemic also
weakened government capacity, strained mental health for those in lockdowns, and exacer-
bated “alternatively governed spaces”where government capacity was already weak
Corresponding author:
Nathan P. Jones, Associate Professor of Security Studies, College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University,
Huntsville, Texas, USA.
Email: natejudejones@gmail.com; nxj008@shsu.edu
Review
Journal of Criminology
2023, Vol. 56(1) 136–143
© The Author(s) 2022
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/26338076221135329
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