Variably Legal Markets: Rethinking Markets and Crime (Routledge Studies in Crime, Security and Justice)

This book offers a novel perspective for conceptualising legality in market exchanges.It challenges the conventional binary of “legal” versus “illegal” markets by introducing the concept of variably legal markets - arenas of exchange where legality is conditional, multidimensional, and context-dependent. Drawing on criminology, law, economics, and regulatory studies, the editors argue that many contemporary markets - such as those involving commercial sex, performance-enhancing drugs, and cryptocurrencies - operate in a blurry middle ground shaped by overlapping legal regimes, inconsistent enforcement, and shifting socio-political norms.To advance this perspective, this collection includes illustrative case studies from experts in this field to reveal how legal status fluctuates across jurisdictions, supply chains, and actors, and how this ambiguity complicates both scholarly analysis and policy interventions.Paoli and Lord call for a more nuanced approach that moves beyond rigid class