Mobile Solutions Against the Mexican Kidnapping Epidemic

Our project, M.A.K.E., (‘Mobile Solutions to the Mexican Kidnapping Epidemic: Beyond Elite Counter-Measures, Towards Citizen-Led Innovation’) has worked collaboratively with Mexican citizens, activist victims and their relatives, human rights defenders, anti-kidnapping experts, technological experts and participatory research specialists to confront the pervasive problem of kidnapping.

Together we have worked to answer a single fundamental question: how do you counter kidnapping when you cannot access private solutions or rely on the state? In so doing, we have conducted ethnographic and participatory research that has not only shed new light on this under-researched illicit practice, but more importantly we have co-produced new tools to assist Mexican citizens to more effectively counter kidnapping.