Simon Mackenzie is an expert on global trafficking. Transnational Criminology is the eleventh title in the New Horizons in Criminology book series. All books are high quality and authoritative texts which reflect cutting edge thought and theoretical development in criminology, have an international scope and are also accessible and concise. Simon's knowledge of the various overlapping and discrete forms and structures of transnational crime is unparalleled. And his writing takes the reader with him, explaining ideas and developments with clarity before going deeper into the subject. Simon's research focus in previous books has been the global trafficking of antiquities with titles including Trafficking Culture (2019), Criminology and Archaeology (2009), and the award-winning Going, Going, Gone (2005). The current book builds on this earlier work in a natural progression, broadening out to illicit transnational trade in other areas such as drugs, wildlife, and human trafficking.

A lot of criminology is naturally focused within national boundaries limited by a country's legislation, policy and criminal justice practices. Yet criminal activities cross borders. It is a cliché to say that we are all affected by globalization; but behind the cliché is a truth that expands opportunities for criminal exploitation. This is reflected in the activities of organized crime groups, white-collar criminals and the broader field of illicit trade. In the introduction to this book Simon sets out the intellectual framework required to understand such ‘international trafficking and global criminal markets’. A key argument made in the book is that the divide between licit and illicit trade is not always distinct and, alongside this, that ‘illegal business dances to very much the same tune as legal business, using similar methods, having similar aims, and achieving similar ends’. As the text goes on to illustrate, trafficking is big business and traffickers adopt ‘the norms and values of globalized neoliberal capitalist markets: profit and power first, ask questions later’. Those involved in trafficking and global criminal markets do not always feel their acts are straightforwardly illegal or wrong; the experience of participation in trafficking is more complex than that. In some cases that is because legal and illegal markets are so closely intertwined.