Dr Wolf holds a PhD in International Politics (Aberystwyth) and is currently a CONACYT Research Fellow with the Drug Policy Programme at the Centre for Economic Research and Teaching, Mexico. Previously, she held research positions at the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico, the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and the Mexico City-based Institute for Security and Democracy.

Dr Wolf’s research focuses on civil society, street gangs, and migration, as well as security and drug policies, especially in Latin America. She has conducted ethnographic research on gang policy activism and qualitative research on forced displacement due to gang violence, the relationship between street gangs and organised crime, police violence, drug policy reform, and iron fist security policies of progressive governments in Central America.

Generally, she is interested in the ways in which political and electoral factors shape the adoption and implementation of security policies. Dr Wolf is interested in comparative work on these issues, particularly in Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.

She is the author of Mano Dura: The Politics of Gang Control in El Salvador (University of Texas Press, 2017).