Juan C. Campos

Welcome to my academic website. I am a Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley and a Visiting Fellow at the Center for U.S.-Mexican Studies at the University of California, San Diego.

As a comparative political scientist, I study how organized crime reshapes democratic governance in Latin America, where criminal organizations have become formidable political actors in their own right. My work is grounded in the premise that organized crime is governed through relationships rather than enforcement alone: whether security institutions repress or protect criminal groups depends on the bargains politicians and criminals strike with one another, bargains that shape democratic life well beyond the security sector. Drawing on quasi-experimental designs and extensive fieldwork across Mexico, my research sits at the intersection of criminal governance, state capacity, and democratic competition.

I hold M.A. degrees in political science from UC Berkeley and California State University, Long Beach, and a B.A. in Government & International Politics from George Mason University.

My CV can be found here.

I can be reached at juan_campos@berkeley.edu