{ "id": "R41075", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "number": "R41075", "active": false, "source": "EveryCRSReport.com, University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "versions": [ { "source": "EveryCRSReport.com", "id": 418236, "date": "2013-02-28", "retrieved": "2016-04-06T23:34:59.668591", "title": "Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence", "summary": "There has been an elevated level of drug trafficking-related violence within and between the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. This violence has generated concern among U.S. policy makers that the violence in Mexico might spill over into the United States. U.S. federal officials have denied that the increase in drug trafficking-related violence in Mexico has resulted in a spillover into the United States, but they acknowledge that the prospect is a serious concern.\nThe most recent threat assessment indicates that the Mexican drug trafficking organizations pose the greatest drug trafficking threat to the United States, and this threat is driven partly by U.S. demand for drugs. Mexican drug trafficking organizations are the major suppliers and key producers of most illegal drugs smuggled into the United States across the Southwest border (SWB). The nature of the conflict between the Mexican drug trafficking organizations in Mexico has manifested itself, in part, as a struggle for control of these smuggling routes into the United States. Further, in an illegal marketplace\u2014such as that of illicit drugs\u2014where prices and profits are elevated due to the risks of operating outside the law, violence or the threat of violence becomes the primary means for settling disputes.\nWhen assessing the potential implications of the increased violence in Mexico, one of the central concerns for Congress is the potential for what has been termed \u201cspillover\u201d violence\u2014an increase in drug trafficking-related violence in United States. While the interagency community has defined spillover violence as violence targeted primarily at civilians and government entities\u2014excluding trafficker-on-trafficker violence\u2014other experts and scholars have recognized trafficker-on-trafficker violence as central to spillover. When defining and analyzing changes in drug trafficking-related violence within the United States to determine whether there has been (or may be in the future) any spillover violence, critical elements include who may be implicated in the violence (both perpetrators and victims), what type of violence may arise, when violence may appear, and where violence may occur (both along the SWB and in the nation\u2019s interior).\nCurrently, no comprehensive, publicly available data exist that can definitively answer the question of whether there has been a significant spillover of drug trafficking-related violence into the United States. Although anecdotal reports have been mixed, U.S. government officials maintain that there has not yet been a significant spillover. In an examination of data that could provide insight into whether there has been a significant spillover in drug trafficking-related violence from Mexico into the United States, CRS analyzed violent crime data from the Federal Bureau of Investigation\u2019s Uniform Crime Report program. The data, however, do not allow analysts to determine what proportion of the violent crime rate is related to drug trafficking or, even more specifically, what proportion of drug trafficking-related violent crimes can be attributed to spillover violence. In conclusion, because the trends in the overall violent crime rate may not be indicative of trends in drug trafficking-related violent crimes, CRS is unable to develop fact-based conclusions about trends in drug trafficking-related violence spilling over from Mexico into the United States.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORTS", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "HTML", "encoding": "utf-8", "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/R41075", "sha1": "c4f330253c519f633c7f00bb7865400748dae549", "filename": "files/20130228_R41075_c4f330253c519f633c7f00bb7865400748dae549.html", "images": null }, { "format": "PDF", "encoding": null, "url": "http://www.crs.gov/Reports/pdf/R41075", "sha1": "66f2c1b181d5a55790e2dd94e4bd03088d246102", "filename": "files/20130228_R41075_66f2c1b181d5a55790e2dd94e4bd03088d246102.pdf", "images": null } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc805861/", "id": "R41075_2011Aug25", "date": "2011-08-25", "retrieved": "2016-03-19T13:57:26", "title": "Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence", "summary": null, "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20110825_R41075_35ccb5f5710d8452883c5aa82dbac84914549c56.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20110825_R41075_35ccb5f5710d8452883c5aa82dbac84914549c56.html" } ], "topics": [] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc93823/", "id": "R41075_2011Jun09", "date": "2011-06-09", "retrieved": "2012-07-24T12:39:36", "title": "Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence", "summary": "There has been an increase in the level of drug trafficking-related violence within and between the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico. This violence has generated concern among U.S. policy makers that the violence in Mexico might spill over into the United States. This report looks at the nature of the drug trafficking conflict and assessments of how the conflict could spill across the border.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20110609_R41075_628aefbbdc60b33c85af9b131692beb02564ca6b.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20110609_R41075_628aefbbdc60b33c85af9b131692beb02564ca6b.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "International affairs", "name": "International affairs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign policy", "name": "Foreign policy" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S.", "name": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S." }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign relations -- U.S. -- Mexico", "name": "Foreign relations -- U.S. -- Mexico" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Drugs and crime", "name": "Drugs and crime" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Criminal justice", "name": "Criminal justice" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Boundaries", "name": "Boundaries" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc103078/", "id": "R41075_2011Jan25", "date": "2011-01-25", "retrieved": "2012-09-19T20:16:14", "title": "Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence", "summary": "This report looks at the nature of the U.S.-Mexico drug trafficking conflict and assessments of how the conflict could spill across the border.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20110125_R41075_43e35064938b1b0ef672ac6a27122f589e8b496f.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20110125_R41075_43e35064938b1b0ef672ac6a27122f589e8b496f.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "International affairs", "name": "International affairs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign policy", "name": "Foreign policy" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S.", "name": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S." }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign relations -- U.S. -- Mexico", "name": "Foreign relations -- U.S. -- Mexico" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Drugs and crime", "name": "Drugs and crime" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Criminal justice", "name": "Criminal justice" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Boundaries", "name": "Boundaries" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc491460/", "id": "R41075_2010Aug24", "date": "2010-08-24", "retrieved": "2015-01-27T19:40:46", "title": "Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence", "summary": "This report focuses on how policy makers would identify any spillover of drug trafficking-related violence into the United States. This report provides an overview of Mexican drug trafficking organization structures, how they conduct business, and the relationship between the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and their partnerships operating here in the United States; a discussion of the illicit drug trade between Mexico and the United States, as well as a discussion of factors implicated in drug trafficking-related violence; an analysis of the possible nature of any spillover violence that may arise, as well as issues involved in accurately identifying and measuring such violence; and an evaluation of available crime rate data and a discussion of how this data may or may not reflect changes in drug trafficking-related crime.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20100824_R41075_69ba533f1f64a8aaa9025a920afa3db62250e12d.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20100824_R41075_69ba533f1f64a8aaa9025a920afa3db62250e12d.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "International affairs", "name": "International affairs" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign policy", "name": "Foreign policy" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S.", "name": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S." }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign relations -- U.S. -- Mexico", "name": "Foreign relations -- U.S. -- Mexico" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Drugs and crime", "name": "Drugs and crime" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Criminal justice", "name": "Criminal justice" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Boundaries", "name": "Boundaries" } ] }, { "source": "University of North Texas Libraries Government Documents Department", "sourceLink": "https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc505622/", "id": "R41075_2010Feb16", "date": "2010-02-16", "retrieved": "2015-05-29T05:37:21", "title": "Southwest Border Violence: Issues in Identifying and Measuring Spillover Violence", "summary": "This report focuses on how policy makers would identify any spillover of drug trafficking-related violence into the United States. It provides an overview of Mexican drug trafficking organization structures, how they conduct business, and the relationship between the drug trafficking organizations in Mexico and their partnerships operating here in the United States; a discussion of the illicit drug trade between Mexico and the United States; and other related issues.", "type": "CRS Report", "typeId": "REPORT", "active": false, "formats": [ { "format": "PDF", "filename": "files/20100216_R41075_fa171f3c6d57f24a462ca0189994a197a32f2d1a.pdf" }, { "format": "HTML", "filename": "files/20100216_R41075_fa171f3c6d57f24a462ca0189994a197a32f2d1a.html" } ], "topics": [ { "source": "LIV", "id": "Boundaries", "name": "Boundaries" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Criminal justice", "name": "Criminal justice" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Drugs and crime", "name": "Drugs and crime" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign policy", "name": "Foreign policy" }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S.", "name": "Foreign relations -- Mexico -- U.S." }, { "source": "LIV", "id": "International affairs", "name": "International affairs" } ] } ], "topics": [ "Health Policy" ] }