Deep Forensics for a More-than-Human Justice

Buscadora collectives in Mexico have developed unique and transformative forensic practices to search for their disappeared loved ones. We examine the work of three collectives, each working in distinct political, ecological, and historical contexts to better understand emergent forms of local citizen-led forensic practice. Attending to spaces, that exist alongside but exceed contemporary forensic practice, we critically reexamine the practice of forensics in the context of the humanitarian and forensic ‘crisis’ in Mexico. Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork and interviews with forensic scientists and buscadora collectives between 2015-2022, we develop three case studies that analyze the collectives’ work in three registers: the (inter)relational, the geo-logic, and the more-than-human. We argue for the emergence of a deep forensics based on collective practices that privilege fragile, multi-valent forms of knowledge production, attend to slow violence, and move beyond an exclusively human-centered episteme. These alternative practices have the potential to displace the crisis time of contemporary state-led forensics and better document the entangled contexts of ‘stratigraphic violence’ in contemporary Mexico allowing for an emergent more-than-human justice.