How Do We Measure Illicit Economies? | Crime Beat Conversations featuring Henry Ziemer

About this episode

The episode discusses the challenges of measuring illicit economies and evaluating enforcement policies with Henry Ziemer.

How do we measure the size of illicit economies, and what can seizure data actually tell us about the effectiveness of enforcement policies? In this episode of Crime Beat Conversations, Rafaella Lispschitz speaks with Henry Ziemer, Fellow with the Americas Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS), about the challenges of measuring illicit markets and evaluating interdiction efforts. The conversation examines: - The methodologies used to estimate the size of illicit economies- What seizure data can (and cannot) reveal about market activity- The limitations of using interdiction figures as a measure of policy success- What more effective metrics could look like for policymakers and researchers Watch the full conversation for a closer look at how evidence, data, and methodology shape our understanding of illicit markets and policy responses. Read Henry’s piece on illicit economy data here: https://www.caballeros.blog/p/the-missing-data-on-illicit-economies Find Henry’s blog, Caballeros, here: https://www.caballeros.blog/ For more from Henry, follow on LinkedIn (https://www.linkedin.com/in/henry-suckow-ziemer-6a5007158/) and X (https://x.com/HenryZiemer) A…

People in this episode

Host: Rafaella Lispschitz

Guest: Henry Ziemer

Topics covered

• illicit economies
• enforcement policies
• seizure data
• interdiction efforts
• policy metrics

Keywords

• illicit economies
• seizure data
• enforcement policies
• interdiction
• policy success

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Center for Strategic and International Studies, New Lines Institute, Caballeros

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