Dr. Benjamin Lessing

Biography

Benjamin Lessing is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago. His research focuses on comparative politics with a particular emphasis on criminal conflict, which he defines as organized violence involving armed groups that seek formal state power, including drug cartels, prison gangs, and paramilitaries. His book, 'Making Peace in Drug Wars: Crackdowns on Cartels in Latin America', published by Cambridge University Press in 2017, analyzes armed conflict involving drug trafficking organizations in Colombia, Mexico, and Brazil. This work has been recognized as an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice in 2018 and has been reviewed in prominent journals such as Latin American Politics Society, Foreign Affairs, and the Journal of Peace Studies. Lessing is currently working on a book project titled 'Criminal Leviathans: Gangs that Govern, Organize Crime, and Challenge the State', which examines the impacts of mass-incarceration policies on the emergence of powerful armed criminal groups. He has been awarded the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship for the period of 2019-2021 to support this research. Lessing co-authored an article published in the American Political Science Review and leads the Program on Political Violence at the University of Chicago. His academic background includes a PhD in political science and an MA in economics from the University of California, Berkeley, along with a postdoctoral fellowship at Stanford University. He has also conducted extensive field research in Latin America and the Caribbean and worked with international organizations such as Amnesty International and Oxfam.

Research Interests

Experience