Violent crime concentrates in particular places, at specific times and among certain groups. Viol... more Violent crime concentrates in particular places, at specific times and among certain groups. Violent crime is especially concentrated in Latin American cities and urban neighborhoods. The region is home to just 14% of the world´s population yet experiences 42% of the world's homicidal violence. In 2017, 43 of the 50 most homicidal cities on the planet were located there. The situation also appears to be worsening. Yet the very concentration of violent crime and its associated risks also offers opportunities for its prevention and reduction. Where crime has previously occurred is often where crime is most likely to recur in the future. Crime prevention measures that explicitly target places, people and times where crime clusters make sense on efficiency and effectiveness grounds. This descriptive analysis provides a general overview of the literature on crime concentration from Latin America and the Caribbean. In the process, it demonstrates how strategies focusing on "hot spots", "hot people" and "hot behaviors" urgently need to be replicated and scaledup.
Chapter 14 integrates critical views from across the domains of criminal justice, human rights, h... more Chapter 14 integrates critical views from across the domains of criminal justice, human rights, health, and development to suggest new drug policy metrics. It reveals how traditional drug policy indicators that reinforce the securitized War on Drugs discourse have justified and sustained the International Drug Control Regime since the 1960s. Rather than proving the International Drug Control Regime’s success, such traditional indicators have exposed how severe the policy has been, for example by counting the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes, without showing its impact. The chapter thus proposes alternative goals, targets, and indicators to overcome the current limbo situation, better track the effects of a progressive drug policy, and shift to a more holistic drug policy paradigm.
After more than a century of steady city expansion in northern countries, the direction of twenty... more After more than a century of steady city expansion in northern countries, the direction of twenty-first century population growth is shifting southwards. Over the next five decades, Africans, Arabs, and Asians will migrate in unprecedented numbers to cities, especially to their slums. Many of these urban settlements are insecure, disorganized, and violent. These are fragile cities and such migrations can threaten their inhabitants, countries, and the wider neighborhood. The analytical focus on fragile cities offers a novel scale when compared to fragile and failing states. It is also one that is preoccupying national policymakers, military strategists, and development experts. Drawing on theoretical and empirical contributions from geography, criminology, and sociology, this article identifies four mega-risks shaping urban fragility-the transformation and concentration of violence, turbo-urbanization, youth bulges, and the relentless penetration of new technologies. It also considers successful approaches to reversing city fragility, including twinning fragile cities with healthier and wealthier ones, investing in hotspot policing, interventions addressing at-risk youth, support for inclusive and cohesive urban growth, and the targeted application of new technologies. 1 T he potentially destabilizing effects of urbanization are considered to be among the most pressing global challenges of our era. More than half of the world's population currently resides in a city, and the proportion will rise to at least three-quarters over the next three decades. Today there are over 500 cities with populations exceeding 1 million, including at least twenty-eight megacities with at least 10 million inhabitants. In 1950, there were just eighty-three cities with over 1 million people and only two megacities. 2 And it is not just city size, but rather, their growing influence that matters: just 600 cities account for two-thirds of global gross domestic product (GDP). 3 The city, then, is at the center of global geopolitical, economic, and demographic transformation. But not all cities are prospering equally. While cities like Seoul and Shanghai
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Nov 1, 2017
Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s e... more Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s exceedingly high rates of violent crime are a product of structural institutional weaknesses in the criminal justice sector and aggravated by routine political and economic crises. Rio de Janeiro is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of criminal violence owing to failures in governance and systemic corruption together with competition between territorial drug factions and sharp socio-economic inequalities. Rio de Janeiro state and metropolitan region suffered a dramatic deterioration in security since 2016 and the situation is likely to worsen in the foreseeable future. It is unlikely that the return of the armed forces to the streets of Rio de Janeiro is going to positively affect the situation chronic institutional weaknesses. This article considers the state of insecurity in Rio de Janeiro, highlighting official trends in crime prevalence and the dynamics of criminal governance.
Cadernos de Campo: Revista de Ciências Sociais, Nov 16, 2017
Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s e... more Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s exceedingly high rates of violent crime are a product of structural institutional weaknesses in the criminal justice sector and aggravated by routine political and economic crises. Rio de Janeiro is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of criminal violence owing to failures in governance and systemic corruption together with competition between territorial drug factions and sharp socio-economic inequalities. Rio de Janeiro state and metropolitan region suffered a dramatic deterioration in security since 2016 and the situation is likely to worsen in the foreseeable future. It is unlikely that the return of the armed forces to the streets of Rio de Janeiro is going to positively affect the situation chronic institutional weaknesses. This article considers the state of insecurity in Rio de Janeiro, highlighting official trends in crime prevalence and the dynamics of criminal governance.
Gun-related violence has far-reaching adverse impacts on all levels of society. In addition to mu... more Gun-related violence has far-reaching adverse impacts on all levels of society. In addition to murder and injury, gun violence can exacerbate cycles of highly localised urban poverty, inequality and vulnerability. India has the second largest number of homicides in the world but the issue is little discussed. In contrast to well-known gun violence in the Americas and Africa, and is absent from public security and development agendas. With criminal violence generating at least ten times more deaths and injuries in India than terrorism and conflict, there is an urgent need to reorient policies towards preventative frameworks and to focus efforts on rapidly growing mid-size cities suffering from under-resourced police forces and rising youth unemployment. Emerging trends of growing gun-related violence in urban India India registers the second largest number of homicides in the world, though the issue is absent from the public security and development agendas: India recorded 43,355 intentional homicides in 2012 or a rate of 4.5 per 100,000. This is more than four times the rate of the UK. Owing to the scale of unregistered births and deaths and the poor quality of police data collection, it is likely that the prevalence is much higher. Even assuming this conservative count, criminal violence generates at least ten times more deaths and injuries in India than terrorism and conflict. India's challenges with gun-related violence are highly concentrated in a limited number of states: Manipur, Nagaland, Bihar, Jharkhand, Jammu and Uttar Pradesh account for over 60 per cent of all registered homicides involving a firearm in 2008. While murder rates associated with firearms declined from 1999 to 2008 (the latest years for which time series data are available), some cities nevertheless experienced a sharp spike in gun violence. In these states, the predominantly rural phenomenon of 'Dabangs' and 'Bahubalis' (gang leaders) using firearms to secure territory and intimidate political rivals is increasingly apparent in semi-urban and urban areas. A comparatively small number of intermediate and large cities register a disproportionate amount of gun violence: four of the top five most violent cities in terms of murder by firearms are located in Uttar Pradesh. The most violent cities are not mega-cities, but rather mid-sized cities of between one and three million people. These mid-sized cities continue to grow rapidly and feature disproportionately large populations of unemployed and under-educated youth. They are also exhibiting severely under-resourced services, including public police forces.
There is growing optimism in development and humanitarian quarters that an international regime i... more There is growing optimism in development and humanitarian quarters that an international regime is emerging to promote and safeguard the rights and needs of internally displaced people. Human rights advocates are adamant that it is not so much an expansion of the existing refugee regime as something radically different. They contend that the new regime is apparent in the discursive and behavioural adaptations made by states, non-state actors, multilateral agencies and non-governmental agencies (Bagshaw 2000; Cohen 2001, 2004; Deng 2007). Oddly, despite a rapid expansion of policy and action research on internal displacement in the latter half of the twentieth century, there was less empirical consideration of the normative parameters of the nascent regime.
Violent crime concentrates in particular places, at specific times and among certain groups. Viol... more Violent crime concentrates in particular places, at specific times and among certain groups. Violent crime is especially concentrated in Latin American cities and urban neighborhoods. The region is home to just 14% of the world´s population yet experiences 42% of the world's homicidal violence. In 2017, 43 of the 50 most homicidal cities on the planet were located there. The situation also appears to be worsening. Yet the very concentration of violent crime and its associated risks also offers opportunities for its prevention and reduction. Where crime has previously occurred is often where crime is most likely to recur in the future. Crime prevention measures that explicitly target places, people and times where crime clusters make sense on efficiency and effectiveness grounds. This descriptive analysis provides a general overview of the literature on crime concentration from Latin America and the Caribbean. In the process, it demonstrates how strategies focusing on "hot spots", "hot people" and "hot behaviors" urgently need to be replicated and scaledup.
Chapter 14 integrates critical views from across the domains of criminal justice, human rights, h... more Chapter 14 integrates critical views from across the domains of criminal justice, human rights, health, and development to suggest new drug policy metrics. It reveals how traditional drug policy indicators that reinforce the securitized War on Drugs discourse have justified and sustained the International Drug Control Regime since the 1960s. Rather than proving the International Drug Control Regime’s success, such traditional indicators have exposed how severe the policy has been, for example by counting the number of people incarcerated for drug-related crimes, without showing its impact. The chapter thus proposes alternative goals, targets, and indicators to overcome the current limbo situation, better track the effects of a progressive drug policy, and shift to a more holistic drug policy paradigm.
After more than a century of steady city expansion in northern countries, the direction of twenty... more After more than a century of steady city expansion in northern countries, the direction of twenty-first century population growth is shifting southwards. Over the next five decades, Africans, Arabs, and Asians will migrate in unprecedented numbers to cities, especially to their slums. Many of these urban settlements are insecure, disorganized, and violent. These are fragile cities and such migrations can threaten their inhabitants, countries, and the wider neighborhood. The analytical focus on fragile cities offers a novel scale when compared to fragile and failing states. It is also one that is preoccupying national policymakers, military strategists, and development experts. Drawing on theoretical and empirical contributions from geography, criminology, and sociology, this article identifies four mega-risks shaping urban fragility-the transformation and concentration of violence, turbo-urbanization, youth bulges, and the relentless penetration of new technologies. It also considers successful approaches to reversing city fragility, including twinning fragile cities with healthier and wealthier ones, investing in hotspot policing, interventions addressing at-risk youth, support for inclusive and cohesive urban growth, and the targeted application of new technologies. 1 T he potentially destabilizing effects of urbanization are considered to be among the most pressing global challenges of our era. More than half of the world's population currently resides in a city, and the proportion will rise to at least three-quarters over the next three decades. Today there are over 500 cities with populations exceeding 1 million, including at least twenty-eight megacities with at least 10 million inhabitants. In 1950, there were just eighty-three cities with over 1 million people and only two megacities. 2 And it is not just city size, but rather, their growing influence that matters: just 600 cities account for two-thirds of global gross domestic product (GDP). 3 The city, then, is at the center of global geopolitical, economic, and demographic transformation. But not all cities are prospering equally. While cities like Seoul and Shanghai
DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals), Nov 1, 2017
Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s e... more Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s exceedingly high rates of violent crime are a product of structural institutional weaknesses in the criminal justice sector and aggravated by routine political and economic crises. Rio de Janeiro is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of criminal violence owing to failures in governance and systemic corruption together with competition between territorial drug factions and sharp socio-economic inequalities. Rio de Janeiro state and metropolitan region suffered a dramatic deterioration in security since 2016 and the situation is likely to worsen in the foreseeable future. It is unlikely that the return of the armed forces to the streets of Rio de Janeiro is going to positively affect the situation chronic institutional weaknesses. This article considers the state of insecurity in Rio de Janeiro, highlighting official trends in crime prevalence and the dynamics of criminal governance.
Cadernos de Campo: Revista de Ciências Sociais, Nov 16, 2017
Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s e... more Brazil´s public security situation is volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous. The country´s exceedingly high rates of violent crime are a product of structural institutional weaknesses in the criminal justice sector and aggravated by routine political and economic crises. Rio de Janeiro is particularly vulnerable to outbreaks of criminal violence owing to failures in governance and systemic corruption together with competition between territorial drug factions and sharp socio-economic inequalities. Rio de Janeiro state and metropolitan region suffered a dramatic deterioration in security since 2016 and the situation is likely to worsen in the foreseeable future. It is unlikely that the return of the armed forces to the streets of Rio de Janeiro is going to positively affect the situation chronic institutional weaknesses. This article considers the state of insecurity in Rio de Janeiro, highlighting official trends in crime prevalence and the dynamics of criminal governance.
Gun-related violence has far-reaching adverse impacts on all levels of society. In addition to mu... more Gun-related violence has far-reaching adverse impacts on all levels of society. In addition to murder and injury, gun violence can exacerbate cycles of highly localised urban poverty, inequality and vulnerability. India has the second largest number of homicides in the world but the issue is little discussed. In contrast to well-known gun violence in the Americas and Africa, and is absent from public security and development agendas. With criminal violence generating at least ten times more deaths and injuries in India than terrorism and conflict, there is an urgent need to reorient policies towards preventative frameworks and to focus efforts on rapidly growing mid-size cities suffering from under-resourced police forces and rising youth unemployment. Emerging trends of growing gun-related violence in urban India India registers the second largest number of homicides in the world, though the issue is absent from the public security and development agendas: India recorded 43,355 intentional homicides in 2012 or a rate of 4.5 per 100,000. This is more than four times the rate of the UK. Owing to the scale of unregistered births and deaths and the poor quality of police data collection, it is likely that the prevalence is much higher. Even assuming this conservative count, criminal violence generates at least ten times more deaths and injuries in India than terrorism and conflict. India's challenges with gun-related violence are highly concentrated in a limited number of states: Manipur, Nagaland, Bihar, Jharkhand, Jammu and Uttar Pradesh account for over 60 per cent of all registered homicides involving a firearm in 2008. While murder rates associated with firearms declined from 1999 to 2008 (the latest years for which time series data are available), some cities nevertheless experienced a sharp spike in gun violence. In these states, the predominantly rural phenomenon of 'Dabangs' and 'Bahubalis' (gang leaders) using firearms to secure territory and intimidate political rivals is increasingly apparent in semi-urban and urban areas. A comparatively small number of intermediate and large cities register a disproportionate amount of gun violence: four of the top five most violent cities in terms of murder by firearms are located in Uttar Pradesh. The most violent cities are not mega-cities, but rather mid-sized cities of between one and three million people. These mid-sized cities continue to grow rapidly and feature disproportionately large populations of unemployed and under-educated youth. They are also exhibiting severely under-resourced services, including public police forces.
There is growing optimism in development and humanitarian quarters that an international regime i... more There is growing optimism in development and humanitarian quarters that an international regime is emerging to promote and safeguard the rights and needs of internally displaced people. Human rights advocates are adamant that it is not so much an expansion of the existing refugee regime as something radically different. They contend that the new regime is apparent in the discursive and behavioural adaptations made by states, non-state actors, multilateral agencies and non-governmental agencies (Bagshaw 2000; Cohen 2001, 2004; Deng 2007). Oddly, despite a rapid expansion of policy and action research on internal displacement in the latter half of the twentieth century, there was less empirical consideration of the normative parameters of the nascent regime.
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