1) Bibliographic data
Binford, Leigh (1999), “A Failure of Normalization: Transnational Migration, Crime, and Popular Justice in the Contemporary Neoliberal Mexican Social Formation,” Social Justice, V 26-3: 123-144.

2) Question(s) addressed by the author and working arguments
Transnational migration, crime, and popular justice can be related to one another as distinct responses to economic and political field of power reconfigured through Mexico’s deepening incorporation into international capitalism. The Mexican state no longer control the resources to maintain the corporatist relations that historically underpinned PRI-government control.
Both the wealthiest 10% of the Mexican population and the international investors benefited from an economic transformation that impoverished the majority. Organized crime is no longer restricted primarily to drug trafficking rings, but is involved in car theft, bank assaults, kidnapping, traffic in arms and persons, the violation of intellectual and industrial property rights, assault on transporters, and house robberies, among others.

3) Conceptual references to transnational – transnationalism

4) Conclusions or Final Remarks
Labour migrants to Los Angeles, New York, and elsewhere are key players in flexible accumulation, preserving domestic industry by working for third world wages and, through their work in restaurants, green grocers, landscaping firms, and janitorial services, servicing the accommodated managerial and professional classes that constitute part of the remaining “core” work force of multinational corporations.