He has done extensive work on the histories of crime and sexuality in Mexico and Latin America. His books include Criminal and Citizen in Modern Mexico (University of Nebraska Press, 2000), Reconstructing Criminality in Modern Latin America (co-edited with Carlos Aguirre), True Stories of Crime in Modern Mexico (co-edited with Pablo Piccato), Mexico: An Encyclopedia of Contemporary Culture and History (co-written with Don Coerver and Suzanne Pasztor), Keen’s Latin American Civilization, 9th edition (co-edited with Lila Caimari), and an edited volume, A Global History of Sexuality (co-edited with Eithne Luibhéid and Donna Guy). He is currently finishing a book, A Sentimental Education for the Working Man: Mexico City 1900-1910, which analyzes the impact of modernity on working-class notions of manhood in early twentieth-century Mexico City.