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Matthew Light

University of Toronto, Centre of Criminology and Sociolegal Studies, Faculty Member

University of Toronto, Centre for European, Russian and Eurasian Studies, Faculty Member

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Trained in political science and law, I work on several topics in post-Soviet law and society, including migration policy (my book Fragile Migration Rights, was published with Routledge in 2016), and more recently law enforcement, criminal justice, and corruption. Current projects include research on policing in the post-Soviet region and Canada, as well as gun policy in the post-Soviet region.My CV is available for viewing on this site. I now also plan to begin adding "final author copy" versions of my articles, that is, the final version I produced prior to publication. I do this to respect copyright and to maximize views of the journals that have published my work, on which their revenue depends. Because of final editorial changes, the versions of papers available on this page will not be identical to the published versions. If you would like to read one of my published articles or book chapters but don't have access to a database where you can download it, please let me know.I also have extensive experience providing expert opinions in immigration cases in both the United States and Canada involving citizens of Russia and other post-Soviet republics. Some of these cases have involved asylum claims. References available upon request.Thanks for your interest.

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Papers by Matthew Light

Introduction to Special Issue on comparative criminology: Context, scope and applicability in critical criminological research

Theoretical Criminology, Nov 1, 2022

How gun control policies evolve: Gun culture, ‘gunscapes’ and political contingency in post-Soviet Georgia

Theoretical Criminology, 2019

We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-... more We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-Soviet Georgia. While neighbouring states retain restrictive Soviet-era gun laws, in Georgia, state failure, armed conflict and proliferation of weapons during the 1990s all impelled recent governments towards moderate gun policies, including liberal rules on handgun ownership, strict rules on gun carriage and a national gun registry. We conceptualize gun policy as the product of relatively durable institutional legacies and underlying social attitudes—in this case, a distinctive post-communist ‘gunscape’—which constrain future policy development; and specific political conjunctures, which provide opportunities for limited policy experimentation. While Georgian gun owners desire weapons for self-defence, sport and the affirmation of masculinity, they do not seek to defy the state or replace its role in collective security, leading to a moderate ‘harm reduction’ approach to regulation tha...

Mathieu Deflem, Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholarly Tradition

Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2008

Parameters of Police Reform and Non-Reform in Post-Soviet Regimes: The Case of Armenia

Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 2018

Abstract: We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds ... more Abstract: We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds of reforms are feasible in post-Soviet states. Using documentary sources, ethnographic observation, and key-informant interviews, we review four major areas of reform: anti-corruption measures in the highway police, modernization of police recruitment and training, the policing of protest, and treatment of victims and witnesses in criminal investigations. The outcomes of Armenia’s reforms are modest, with significant improvement in some areas, ambiguous or cosmetic changes in others, and lack of reform in still others, where the government and international partners have not made progress a priority (“neglected reforms”) or reject change altogether for reasons of regime survival (“blocked reforms”). We explain these outcomes through the country’s intra-elite relations, antecedent levels of corruption and street crime, and international linkages, suggesting Armenia’s reforms may be more t...

Trafficking justice: How Russian police enforce new laws, from crime to courtroom, by Lauren A. McCarthy, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2015, xxiii + 276 pp., USD$39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0801453892

Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2016

Trafficking justice: How Russian police enforce new laws, from crime to courtroom, by Lauren A. M... more Trafficking justice: How Russian police enforce new laws, from crime to courtroom, by Lauren A. McCarthy, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2015, xxiii + 276 pp., USD $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0801453892On one level, this impressive monograph is a detailed study of the legal regulation of human trafficking and slave labour (HTSL) in post-Soviet Russia, a country that is a major source of, and destination for, trafficked persons. HTSL has been garnering increased attention from scholars as a significant form of organized crime and as a human rights violation, and McCarthy's book adds significantly to scholarly knowledge of this scourge. On another level, it is an analysis of the Russian criminal justice system "from soup to nuts", which follows the roll-out of a new criminal statute through its implementation by multiple law enforcement and judicial institutions. For the reader seeking a brief, general introduction to these institutions, it is probably the clearest and best organized work to have appeared in English in recent years. As a study of post-Soviet law and society, Trafficking Justice also offers a thoughtful reassessment of corruption in Russian public administration. Through this case study, McCarthy presents a balanced analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Russian criminal justice in which corruption features as one properly contextualized factor, rather than the whole story.McCarthy begins by charting the scope and characteristics of HTSL in Russia, including the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in the West and in Russia itself, the enslavement of Russian citizens and guest workers for forced labour, and the sale of children for adoption. After years of downplaying the seriousness of the problem, Russia came under heavy pressure by western governments to take more serious measures against it. As a result, in 2000 Moscow acceded to the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, which required that it adopt a specific criminal statute prohibiting HTSL, and in 2003 the Russian parliament duly enacted such a law. However, in the years since then, there have been relatively few prosecutions under the 2003 Act. Rather, McCarthy's data show that, although the prosecution of HTSL cases has indeed increased, perpetrators are typically charged under other articles of the criminal code rather than the HTSL statute itself.McCarthy develops a comprehensive explanation for this outcome, focusing mainly on the "institutional machinery" responsible for enforcing HTSL policy. In Russia, perhaps more than in most countries, the investigation and prosecution of a crime involve multiple, distinct, and poorly co-ordinated actors representing different agencies, some of which have competing jurisdictions. HTSL cases also run into another feature of Russian criminal justice institutions, namely, performance evaluation of employees through "clearance rates", which leads law enforcers to shun complex or challenging cases. This system coexists with a hierarchical occupational subculture in which individual initiative is discouraged while expertise and training regarding new crimes are not disseminated effectively. The result is a highly conservative and risk-averse approach to criminal investigation in which new and complex offences such as HTSL are seen to be more trouble than they are worth. …

Private security and national security: The case of Estonia

Theoretical Criminology

Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of th... more Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of the industry's growth and regulation. In contrast, based on the case of post-Soviet Estonia, we investigate how a state's external security environment influences private security. Estonia's tense relations with Russia generated several policies through which private security evolved from a lawless industry to a modest, lightly regulated one: (1) the exclusion of public police from private security; (2) an effective campaign against organized crime; (3) free-trade policies that permitted western companies to acquire Estonian security firms; and (4) state–civil society security cooperation. Estonia thus clarifies how high politics shapes private security, while also revealing the factors that make the industry relatively uncontentious in most industrialized democracies.

Constraints on the growth of private policing: A comparative international analysis

Theoretical Criminology, 2017

While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialize... more While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialized democracies, less is known about why the industry does not develop uniformly around the world. We propose some hypotheses about constraints on private security growth in other settings, based on three comparative case studies in authoritarian states (Russia and Georgia), developing countries (Guyana and Trinidad) and non-‘Anglosphere’ industrialized democracies (continental Europe). In authoritarian states, private policing is more politically sensitive than in democratic states, sometimes resulting in more draconian restrictions on it. In developing societies, despite widespread fear of crime, potential consumers sometimes favour in-house measures over private security firms and electronic devices. In developed democracies, variation in private security growth reflects regulatory, institutional and ideological differences between the Anglosphere and continental Europe. We conclude tha...

Crime and criminal justice after communism: Why study the post-Soviet region?

Theoretical Criminology, 2015

Private security and national security: The case of Estonia

Theoretical Criminology, 2022

Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of th... more Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of the industry's growth and regulation. In contrast, based on the case of post-Soviet Estonia, we investigate how a state's external security environment influences private security. Estonia's tense relations with Russia generated several policies through which private security evolved from a lawless industry to a modest, lightly regulated one: (1) the exclusion of public police from private security; (2) an effective campaign against organized crime; (3) free-trade policies that permitted western companies to acquire Estonian security firms; and (4) state-civil society security cooperation. Estonia thus clarifies how high politics shapes private security, while also revealing the factors that make the industry relatively uncontentious in most industrialized democracies.

Policing following political and social transitions: Russia, Brazil, and China compared

Theoretical Criminology, 2015

This is a comparative analysis of policing in three countries that have experienced a major polit... more This is a comparative analysis of policing in three countries that have experienced a major political or social transition, Russia, Brazil, and China. We consider two related questions: (1) how has transition in each country affected the deployment of the police against regime opponents (which we term “repression”)? And (2) how has the transition affected other police misconduct that also victimizes citizens but is not directly ordered by the regime (“abuse”)? As expected, authoritarian regimes are more likely to perpetrate severe repression. However, the most repressive authoritarian regimes such as China may also contain oversight institutions that limit police abuse. We also assess the relative importance of both transitional outcomes and processes in post-transition policing evolution, arguing that the “abusiveness” of contemporary Brazilian police reflects the failure to create oversight mechanisms during the transition, and that the increasing “repressiveness” of Chinese polic...

The Russo-Georgian War of 2008: A Conflict Announced in Advance?

Europe-Asia Studies, 2010

The politics of gender equality: Explaining variation in fertility levels in rich democracies

Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 2004

ABSTRACT

The Politics of Gender Equality

Women & Politics, 2004

A consensus has emerged that gender-friendly policies can promote higher fertility in rich democr... more A consensus has emerged that gender-friendly policies can promote higher fertility in rich democracies (Esping-Andersen 1999). This paper supplies a political explanation for why these fertility-enabling policies diverge across countries. Using Sweden and Germany as our primary case studies, we argue that the strength of the left party&#39;s hold on government, rather than economic or social factors, underpins the expansion

Gerber review of my book

Regulation, recruitment, and control of immigration

Matthew Light, “Regulation, Recruitment and Control of Immigration,” in International Handbook of Migration Studies, eds. Steven Gold and Stephanie Nawyn (Routledge), 345-55, 2013

This handbook chapter analyzes how the study of immigration policy has become integrated into a b... more This handbook chapter analyzes how the study of immigration policy has become integrated into a broader literature on the study of how both domestic and international migration are regulated; the range of migration control policies in contemporary states; and how the the study of migration control is evolving and could evolve further, through more developed comparative analysis and attention to normative debates mainly conducted within political philosophy.

Article on Trump-Russia for Montreal's La Presse

La Presse, 2019

In this short French-language piece, I analyze the underlying causes of the Trump-Russia scandal,... more In this short French-language piece, I analyze the underlying causes of the Trump-Russia scandal, arguing that since the end of the Cold War, the Russian government has benefited from two related developments that have enabled it to cultivate high-level political allies in Western countries: first, the deregulation of finance, which facilitates financial links between the post-Soviet and Western elites; and second, the Kremlin's liberation from Soviet-era official Marxism-Leninism, which has made the Kremlin a more appealing and politically acceptable partner for unscrupulous westerners, such as Trump.

How gun control policies evolve: Gun culture, ‘gunscapes’ and political contingency in post-Soviet Georgia

Theoretical Criminology, 2019

We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-... more We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-Soviet Georgia. While neighbouring states retain restrictive Soviet-era gun laws, in Georgia, state failure, armed conflict and proliferation of weapons during the 1990s all impelled recent governments towards moderate gun policies, including liberal rules on handgun ownership, strict rules on gun carriage and a national gun registry. We conceptualize gun policy as the product of relatively durable institutional legacies and underlying social attitudes—in this case, a distinctive post-communist ‘gunscape’—which constrain future policy development; and specific political conjunctures, which provide opportunities for limited policy experimentation. While Georgian gun owners desire weapons for self-defence, sport and the affirmation of masculinity, they do not seek to defy the state or replace its role in collective security, leading to a moderate ‘harm reduction’ approach to regulation that may be applicable in other post-conflict societies.

PARAMETERS OF POLICE REFORM AND NON-REFORM IN POST-SOVIET REGIMES: THE CASE OF ARMENIA

by Nona Shahnazarian and Matthew Light

Demokratizatsiya, 2018

We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds of reforms... more We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds of reforms are feasible in post-Soviet states. Using documentary sources, ethnographic observation, and key-informant interviews, we review four major areas of reform: anti-corruption measures in the highway police, modernization of police recruitment and training, the policing of protest, and treatment of victims and witnesses in criminal investigations. The outcomes of Armenia’s reforms are modest, with significant improvement in some areas, ambiguous or cosmetic changes in others, and lack of reform in still others, where the government and international partners have not made progress a priority (“neglected reforms”), or reject change altogether for reasons of regime survival (“blocked reforms”). We explain these outcomes through the country’s intra-elite relations, antecedent levels of corruption and street crime, and international linkages, suggesting Armenia’s reforms may be more typical of the region than better-studied Georgia and Russia. Based on these findings, similar modest reforms could occur in electoral authoritarian regimes throughout the region, although certain important reforms may be only possible following a radical political transformation.

Constraints on the growth of private policing: A comparative international analysis

by Anne-Marie Singh and Matthew Light

Theoretical Criminology, 2017

While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialize... more While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialized democracies, less is known about why the industry does not develop uniformly around the world. We propose some hypotheses about constraints on private security growth in other settings, based on three comparative case studies in authoritarian states (Russia and Georgia), developing countries (Guyana and Trinidad), and non-" Anglosphere " industrialized democracies (continental Europe). In authoritarian states, private policing is more politically sensitive than in democratic states, sometimes resulting in more draconian restrictions on it. In developing societies, despite widespread fear of crime, potential consumers sometimes favor in-house measures over private security firms and electronic devices. In developed democracies, variation in private security growth reflects regulatory, institutional, and ideological differences between the Anglosphere and continental Europe. We conclude that constraints on the private security industry's growth potential are more significant than many scholars have acknowledged.

Special issue of Theoretical Criminology on Post-Soviet Crime and Criminal Justice

by Matthew Light, Yuhua Wang, Richard Arnold, Dr. Alexandra Lysova, and Leonid Kosals

A collection of articles on contemporary crime and criminal justice in the former Soviet Union. ... more

Introduction to Special Issue on comparative criminology: Context, scope and applicability in critical criminological research

Theoretical Criminology, Nov 1, 2022

How gun control policies evolve: Gun culture, ‘gunscapes’ and political contingency in post-Soviet Georgia

Theoretical Criminology, 2019

We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-... more We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-Soviet Georgia. While neighbouring states retain restrictive Soviet-era gun laws, in Georgia, state failure, armed conflict and proliferation of weapons during the 1990s all impelled recent governments towards moderate gun policies, including liberal rules on handgun ownership, strict rules on gun carriage and a national gun registry. We conceptualize gun policy as the product of relatively durable institutional legacies and underlying social attitudes—in this case, a distinctive post-communist ‘gunscape’—which constrain future policy development; and specific political conjunctures, which provide opportunities for limited policy experimentation. While Georgian gun owners desire weapons for self-defence, sport and the affirmation of masculinity, they do not seek to defy the state or replace its role in collective security, leading to a moderate ‘harm reduction’ approach to regulation tha...

Mathieu Deflem, Sociology of Law: Visions of a Scholarly Tradition

Canadian Journal of Sociology, 2008

Parameters of Police Reform and Non-Reform in Post-Soviet Regimes: The Case of Armenia

Demokratizatsiya: The Journal of Post-Soviet Democratization, 2018

Abstract: We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds ... more Abstract: We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds of reforms are feasible in post-Soviet states. Using documentary sources, ethnographic observation, and key-informant interviews, we review four major areas of reform: anti-corruption measures in the highway police, modernization of police recruitment and training, the policing of protest, and treatment of victims and witnesses in criminal investigations. The outcomes of Armenia’s reforms are modest, with significant improvement in some areas, ambiguous or cosmetic changes in others, and lack of reform in still others, where the government and international partners have not made progress a priority (“neglected reforms”) or reject change altogether for reasons of regime survival (“blocked reforms”). We explain these outcomes through the country’s intra-elite relations, antecedent levels of corruption and street crime, and international linkages, suggesting Armenia’s reforms may be more t...

Trafficking justice: How Russian police enforce new laws, from crime to courtroom, by Lauren A. McCarthy, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2015, xxiii + 276 pp., USD$39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0801453892

Canadian Slavonic Papers, 2016

Trafficking justice: How Russian police enforce new laws, from crime to courtroom, by Lauren A. M... more Trafficking justice: How Russian police enforce new laws, from crime to courtroom, by Lauren A. McCarthy, Ithaca, NY, Cornell University Press, 2015, xxiii + 276 pp., USD $39.95 (cloth), ISBN 978-0801453892On one level, this impressive monograph is a detailed study of the legal regulation of human trafficking and slave labour (HTSL) in post-Soviet Russia, a country that is a major source of, and destination for, trafficked persons. HTSL has been garnering increased attention from scholars as a significant form of organized crime and as a human rights violation, and McCarthy's book adds significantly to scholarly knowledge of this scourge. On another level, it is an analysis of the Russian criminal justice system "from soup to nuts", which follows the roll-out of a new criminal statute through its implementation by multiple law enforcement and judicial institutions. For the reader seeking a brief, general introduction to these institutions, it is probably the clearest and best organized work to have appeared in English in recent years. As a study of post-Soviet law and society, Trafficking Justice also offers a thoughtful reassessment of corruption in Russian public administration. Through this case study, McCarthy presents a balanced analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of Russian criminal justice in which corruption features as one properly contextualized factor, rather than the whole story.McCarthy begins by charting the scope and characteristics of HTSL in Russia, including the trafficking of women for sexual exploitation in the West and in Russia itself, the enslavement of Russian citizens and guest workers for forced labour, and the sale of children for adoption. After years of downplaying the seriousness of the problem, Russia came under heavy pressure by western governments to take more serious measures against it. As a result, in 2000 Moscow acceded to the Convention on Transnational Organized Crime, which required that it adopt a specific criminal statute prohibiting HTSL, and in 2003 the Russian parliament duly enacted such a law. However, in the years since then, there have been relatively few prosecutions under the 2003 Act. Rather, McCarthy's data show that, although the prosecution of HTSL cases has indeed increased, perpetrators are typically charged under other articles of the criminal code rather than the HTSL statute itself.McCarthy develops a comprehensive explanation for this outcome, focusing mainly on the "institutional machinery" responsible for enforcing HTSL policy. In Russia, perhaps more than in most countries, the investigation and prosecution of a crime involve multiple, distinct, and poorly co-ordinated actors representing different agencies, some of which have competing jurisdictions. HTSL cases also run into another feature of Russian criminal justice institutions, namely, performance evaluation of employees through "clearance rates", which leads law enforcers to shun complex or challenging cases. This system coexists with a hierarchical occupational subculture in which individual initiative is discouraged while expertise and training regarding new crimes are not disseminated effectively. The result is a highly conservative and risk-averse approach to criminal investigation in which new and complex offences such as HTSL are seen to be more trouble than they are worth. …

Private security and national security: The case of Estonia

Theoretical Criminology

Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of th... more Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of the industry's growth and regulation. In contrast, based on the case of post-Soviet Estonia, we investigate how a state's external security environment influences private security. Estonia's tense relations with Russia generated several policies through which private security evolved from a lawless industry to a modest, lightly regulated one: (1) the exclusion of public police from private security; (2) an effective campaign against organized crime; (3) free-trade policies that permitted western companies to acquire Estonian security firms; and (4) state–civil society security cooperation. Estonia thus clarifies how high politics shapes private security, while also revealing the factors that make the industry relatively uncontentious in most industrialized democracies.

Constraints on the growth of private policing: A comparative international analysis

Theoretical Criminology, 2017

While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialize... more While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialized democracies, less is known about why the industry does not develop uniformly around the world. We propose some hypotheses about constraints on private security growth in other settings, based on three comparative case studies in authoritarian states (Russia and Georgia), developing countries (Guyana and Trinidad) and non-‘Anglosphere’ industrialized democracies (continental Europe). In authoritarian states, private policing is more politically sensitive than in democratic states, sometimes resulting in more draconian restrictions on it. In developing societies, despite widespread fear of crime, potential consumers sometimes favour in-house measures over private security firms and electronic devices. In developed democracies, variation in private security growth reflects regulatory, institutional and ideological differences between the Anglosphere and continental Europe. We conclude tha...

Crime and criminal justice after communism: Why study the post-Soviet region?

Theoretical Criminology, 2015

Private security and national security: The case of Estonia

Theoretical Criminology, 2022

Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of th... more Most studies of private security postulate exclusively internal, primarily economic, causes of the industry's growth and regulation. In contrast, based on the case of post-Soviet Estonia, we investigate how a state's external security environment influences private security. Estonia's tense relations with Russia generated several policies through which private security evolved from a lawless industry to a modest, lightly regulated one: (1) the exclusion of public police from private security; (2) an effective campaign against organized crime; (3) free-trade policies that permitted western companies to acquire Estonian security firms; and (4) state-civil society security cooperation. Estonia thus clarifies how high politics shapes private security, while also revealing the factors that make the industry relatively uncontentious in most industrialized democracies.

Policing following political and social transitions: Russia, Brazil, and China compared

Theoretical Criminology, 2015

This is a comparative analysis of policing in three countries that have experienced a major polit... more This is a comparative analysis of policing in three countries that have experienced a major political or social transition, Russia, Brazil, and China. We consider two related questions: (1) how has transition in each country affected the deployment of the police against regime opponents (which we term “repression”)? And (2) how has the transition affected other police misconduct that also victimizes citizens but is not directly ordered by the regime (“abuse”)? As expected, authoritarian regimes are more likely to perpetrate severe repression. However, the most repressive authoritarian regimes such as China may also contain oversight institutions that limit police abuse. We also assess the relative importance of both transitional outcomes and processes in post-transition policing evolution, arguing that the “abusiveness” of contemporary Brazilian police reflects the failure to create oversight mechanisms during the transition, and that the increasing “repressiveness” of Chinese polic...

The Russo-Georgian War of 2008: A Conflict Announced in Advance?

Europe-Asia Studies, 2010

The politics of gender equality: Explaining variation in fertility levels in rich democracies

Journal of Women, Politics & Policy, 2004

ABSTRACT

The Politics of Gender Equality

Women & Politics, 2004

A consensus has emerged that gender-friendly policies can promote higher fertility in rich democr... more A consensus has emerged that gender-friendly policies can promote higher fertility in rich democracies (Esping-Andersen 1999). This paper supplies a political explanation for why these fertility-enabling policies diverge across countries. Using Sweden and Germany as our primary case studies, we argue that the strength of the left party&#39;s hold on government, rather than economic or social factors, underpins the expansion

Gerber review of my book

Regulation, recruitment, and control of immigration

Matthew Light, “Regulation, Recruitment and Control of Immigration,” in International Handbook of Migration Studies, eds. Steven Gold and Stephanie Nawyn (Routledge), 345-55, 2013

This handbook chapter analyzes how the study of immigration policy has become integrated into a b... more This handbook chapter analyzes how the study of immigration policy has become integrated into a broader literature on the study of how both domestic and international migration are regulated; the range of migration control policies in contemporary states; and how the the study of migration control is evolving and could evolve further, through more developed comparative analysis and attention to normative debates mainly conducted within political philosophy.

Article on Trump-Russia for Montreal's La Presse

La Presse, 2019

In this short French-language piece, I analyze the underlying causes of the Trump-Russia scandal,... more In this short French-language piece, I analyze the underlying causes of the Trump-Russia scandal, arguing that since the end of the Cold War, the Russian government has benefited from two related developments that have enabled it to cultivate high-level political allies in Western countries: first, the deregulation of finance, which facilitates financial links between the post-Soviet and Western elites; and second, the Kremlin's liberation from Soviet-era official Marxism-Leninism, which has made the Kremlin a more appealing and politically acceptable partner for unscrupulous westerners, such as Trump.

How gun control policies evolve: Gun culture, ‘gunscapes’ and political contingency in post-Soviet Georgia

Theoretical Criminology, 2019

We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-... more We analyse the influence of gun culture and exogenous political events on gun regulation in post-Soviet Georgia. While neighbouring states retain restrictive Soviet-era gun laws, in Georgia, state failure, armed conflict and proliferation of weapons during the 1990s all impelled recent governments towards moderate gun policies, including liberal rules on handgun ownership, strict rules on gun carriage and a national gun registry. We conceptualize gun policy as the product of relatively durable institutional legacies and underlying social attitudes—in this case, a distinctive post-communist ‘gunscape’—which constrain future policy development; and specific political conjunctures, which provide opportunities for limited policy experimentation. While Georgian gun owners desire weapons for self-defence, sport and the affirmation of masculinity, they do not seek to defy the state or replace its role in collective security, leading to a moderate ‘harm reduction’ approach to regulation that may be applicable in other post-conflict societies.

PARAMETERS OF POLICE REFORM AND NON-REFORM IN POST-SOVIET REGIMES: THE CASE OF ARMENIA

by Nona Shahnazarian and Matthew Light

Demokratizatsiya, 2018

We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds of reforms... more We examine police reform in Armenia as an illustrative case study to assess what kinds of reforms are feasible in post-Soviet states. Using documentary sources, ethnographic observation, and key-informant interviews, we review four major areas of reform: anti-corruption measures in the highway police, modernization of police recruitment and training, the policing of protest, and treatment of victims and witnesses in criminal investigations. The outcomes of Armenia’s reforms are modest, with significant improvement in some areas, ambiguous or cosmetic changes in others, and lack of reform in still others, where the government and international partners have not made progress a priority (“neglected reforms”), or reject change altogether for reasons of regime survival (“blocked reforms”). We explain these outcomes through the country’s intra-elite relations, antecedent levels of corruption and street crime, and international linkages, suggesting Armenia’s reforms may be more typical of the region than better-studied Georgia and Russia. Based on these findings, similar modest reforms could occur in electoral authoritarian regimes throughout the region, although certain important reforms may be only possible following a radical political transformation.

Constraints on the growth of private policing: A comparative international analysis

by Anne-Marie Singh and Matthew Light

Theoretical Criminology, 2017

While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialize... more While much has been written on private security expansion in a few English-speaking industrialized democracies, less is known about why the industry does not develop uniformly around the world. We propose some hypotheses about constraints on private security growth in other settings, based on three comparative case studies in authoritarian states (Russia and Georgia), developing countries (Guyana and Trinidad), and non-" Anglosphere " industrialized democracies (continental Europe). In authoritarian states, private policing is more politically sensitive than in democratic states, sometimes resulting in more draconian restrictions on it. In developing societies, despite widespread fear of crime, potential consumers sometimes favor in-house measures over private security firms and electronic devices. In developed democracies, variation in private security growth reflects regulatory, institutional, and ideological differences between the Anglosphere and continental Europe. We conclude that constraints on the private security industry's growth potential are more significant than many scholars have acknowledged.

Special issue of Theoretical Criminology on Post-Soviet Crime and Criminal Justice

by Matthew Light, Yuhua Wang, Richard Arnold, Dr. Alexandra Lysova, and Leonid Kosals

A collection of articles on contemporary crime and criminal justice in the former Soviet Union. ... more

Insights about the Ukraine Crisis from a Stay in the Caucasus

Presented to Science for Peace, Toronto, October 1, 2014. In this talk, I consider the causes of... more