Marco Alcocer, Ph.D.

Mapping Criminal Organizations


Mapping Criminal Organizations in Mexico (www.mexicocrimemaps.org) is an original effort to generate comprehensive information about criminal operations in Mexico. The project combines qualitative and automated methods to produce a series of systematic datasets on the presence, structure, evolution, and relationships of criminal groups in Mexico. Our online platform contains maps and other visuals and provides free access to the data, its codebooks, and methodology documents.

Current data projects:
- "Mapping Criminal Organizations in Mexico: State Panel 2007-2015", https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/N0KGCZ, Harvard Dataverse, V1.
       - State-month level data on the geographic presence of criminal organizations.
       - In the media: El Financiero, Mexico Today (by Reforma), IMER Noticias, Al Calor Politico, Cuestione 
- "Mapping Criminal Organizations in Guanajuato, 2000-2021." Alcocer, Marco. 
       - Data on geographic presence, strength of presence, alliances, rivalries, and qualitative information on each criminal group. 
- "Mapping Criminal Organizations in Mexico: Municipal Panel 2000-2018." Sobrino, Fernanda. 
       - Municipality-year data on the presence of criminal organizations.
- "Mapping Criminal Organizations in Mexico: Group Histories and Fragmentation." Alcocer, Marco and Hesles, Lucía. 
       - Qualtaitive dataset on all  independent criminal organizations in Mexico between 2000 and 2018. 
- Dyad data on relationships between criminal groups (allied, enemy, neutral)

This project has been supported by the Center for U.S.–Mexican Studies at UCSD’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, the Empirical Studies of Conflict Project, the Data-Driven Social Science Initiative at Princeton University, and the Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice at Princeton University.

Leadership
- Marco Alcocer, UC San Diego and ITAM, Co-founder and Lead Investigator.
- Fernanda Sobrino, Tecnologico de Monterrey School of Government, Machine Learning Expert.
- Cecilia Farfán Méndez, Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies, Field data collection expert.

Current Research Assistants
- Lucía Hesles (ITAM, undergrad)
- Renatta Salinas Delgado (Tec de Monterrey, B.A.)

Past Members
- Patrick Signoret, Co-founder.

Past Research Assistants
- Fernanda Quintanilla (Tec de Monterrey, B.A.)
- Valeria Gonzalez Guerra (ITESO, B.A.)
- ​Silvia Prado (Universidad de Guanajuato)
- Jacqueline Vazquez (Universidad de Guanajuato)


Killings of Law Enforcement Officers in Mexico


Original data on killed law enforcement personnel across Mexico in 2018 and in Guanajuato between 2000-2020. See article for details.


Killings of Politicians in Mexico


Original data on assassinated politicians across Mexico from 2000-2018. See article for details.
  • Source: Alcocer, Marco and Megan Erickson. (2026) "The Transformation of Mexican Cartels and Violence Against State Officials" Journal of Peace Research. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopres/xjag076
  • Please cite article if you use the data.
  • Raw data available here: Mexico 2000-2018

Map assassinateed politicians in Mexico

Queenpins


Original qualitative dataset of 44 women who led criminal organizations across 18 countries and six continents since 1850. The data provides brief case studies on each woman leader. See article for details.
  • Source: Quintanilla Domínguez, Fernanda and Marco Alcocer. (2026) "Queenpins: Women Leaders and Violence in Organized Crime" Accepted at Comparative Political Studies.
  • Please cite article if you use the data.

Explore qualitative case studies of women who reached the highest levels of criminal organizations. Click a highlighted country on the map to view the leaders associated with that country. Download data.

45 Women leaders
18 Countries
6 Continents

Darker shading indicates more women leaders represented in the dataset. The shading describes this dataset, not the population prevalence of women criminal leaders.

Select a country

Click a colored country on the map, or choose a country from the menu above, to display its case studies.
About the cases. For transnational cases, the map assigns each leader to one primary country so that each leader is counted once. See the associated article and online appendix for case selection, source documentation, and discussion of gender bias in available reporting.