InSight Crime
Two articles on the concept of collective trajectory developed by Prof. Chomczynski's team have appeared at insightcrime.org.
The first article deals with how criminal organizations in Mexico recruit new members, while the second article artykuł takes the form of an interview with the Professor, in which he explains the concept of collective trajectory and relates it to current trends in Mexican organized crime.
Collective Trajectory Concept
Prof. Piotr Chomczynski (University of Lodz, Academy of Applied Sciences in Pila) in collaboration with:
- Roger S. Guy (State University of New York at Oswego Department of Criminal Justice, United States),
- Timothy Clark (University of Texas at El Paso's Department of Criminal Justice, United States),
- Elena Azaola (Centro de Investigaciones y Estudios Superiores en Antropología Social, Mexico),
- Rodrigo Cortina Cortez (independent researcher from Mexico),
has developed a new criminological concept called collective trajectory. The concept is based on several years of field research conducted by Professor Piotr Chomczynski in Latin American countries (Ecuador, Mexico, Honduras). The collective trajectory explains on a theoretical level the phenomenon of young people joining the ranks of criminal organizations in Latin American cultural realities.
The concept will be tested in six Latin American countries (Colombia, Mexico, Honduras, Argentina, Brazil, Chile) as part of a four-year international CRIMLA research project funded by the Norwegian Research Council, in which Prof. Chomczynski is participating from 2021. The project is coordinated by Prof. Sveinung Sandberg of the University of Oslo.
The concept of collective trajectory has been published in major foreign and Polish criminological journals, such as:
- Justice Quarterly, British Journal of Criminology, Current Sociology, International Sociology, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Global Crime.
- Archives of Criminology, chapter to the textbook Criminology published in PWN edited by Piotr Chomczynski, Przymyslaw Frąckowiak, ANS in Pila, and Dagmara Wozniakowska-Fajst, PAN, UW).
Dr hab. Piotr Chomczyński, prof. UŁ - sociologist, criminologist leader of the research team at the Center for Analysis, Modeling and Computational Science at the University of Lodz (Centrum Analiz, Modelowania i Nauk Obliczeniowych Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego), professor in the Department of Sociology of Art at the Faculty of Economics and Sociology of the University of Lodz and the Department of Criminology at the Academy of Applied Sciences in Pila. He is interested in the sociology of deviance, organized crime in Latin American countries and the methodology of ethnographic research conducted in difficult terrain. He conducts ethnographic research on drug cartel crime. In collaboration with the Mexican Commission for the Defense of Human Rights (Comisión de Derechos Humanos de México), he has monitored the situation of inmates in prisons and correctional facilities in Mexico and also in Honduras, Germany, Ecuador and Ukraine.
Source: prof. Piotr Chomczyński, www.uni.lodz.pl
Edit: Centrum Rozwoju Wydziału