Abstract for: Illegality and Instability as a Continuum: The US-Mexico Border Case

The escalation of violence in Mexico and along the border with the United States has triggered a number of social responses that attempt both to control and to live with current levels of uncertainty in both countries. Additionally, several other social problems have contributed to the messiness of the current situation making it difficult for individuals and governments to identify leverage points of intervention. This work explores dynamic drivers of the emergence of violence in Mexico and along the border with the United States as a specific manifestation of the social processes that turn illegality into instability. A system dynamics approach is used to explore these issues in an effort to identify high-leverage points of intervention.