Dr. Rolando Ochoa is a Lecturer at the Department of Security Studies and Criminology. He holds a PhD in Sociology and an MPhil in Latin American Studies, both from the University of Oxford, UK. He has carried out research on the history and political economy of kidnapping in Mexico, as well as the impact of organized crime on fragile states. He has also focused on how how individuals solve issues of trust and reputation in contexts of weak rule of law and inside criminal organizations.

Prior to joining SSC, he was a post-Doctoral Fellow and Lecturer at the School of Sociology, at the Australian National University (ANU). He has also worked as a Senior Analyst at the International Centre for the Prevention of Crime (ICPC) in Canada, where he acquired important policy experience and a Senior Researcher at the Asia Pacific Centre for the Prevention of Crime (APCPC), at Griffith University.