ABSTRACT
This chapter introduces the edited volume, the first of its kind dedicated to interdisciplinary perspectives on the roles of women in wildlife trafficking, a globally distributed problem that can involve multiple serious aspects of criminality, violence, and violations of the rule of law. Many unanswered research questions are posed, some of which begin to be answered in the following chapters. The massive hole in scientific understanding about the roles of women in wildlife trafficking is presented as a major shortcoming with diverse implications. Without evidence, policies and programs designed to respond to and prevent wildlife trafficking may fail to achieve outcomes, fail to be monitored and evaluated using accurate metrics, and fail to promote the voice of local scientists during science–policy discourse. Overarching observations about, and a road map of, the content of the edited volume are posed for the reader.
