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Taking an ethnographic approach to understanding urban violence, this work examines the problems of crime and police corruption that have led to widespread misery and human rights violations in many of Latin America's new democracies. It argues that public policy change is not enough to stop the vicious cycle of crime and corruption

Taking an ethnographic approach to understanding urban violence, this work examines the problems of crime and police corruption that have led to widespread misery and human rights violations in many of Latin America's new democracies. It argues that public policy change is not enough to stop the vicious cycle of crime and corruption.

Academic analyses of crime and policing in Latin America have generally focused on the failure of state institutions to guarantee a rule of law. This study, however, argues that the persistently high levels of violence in Rio's favelas [shantytowns] result not from the failure of institutions but, rather, from networks that bring criminals together with civic leaders, politicians, and police. These contacts protect traffickers from state repression and help them build political support among the residents of the where they favelas operate. Rather than creating 'parallel states' outside of political control, then, these networks link trafficker dominated favelas into Rio's broader political and social system.

Arias reviews Blackness Without Ethnicity: Constructing Race in Brazil by Livio Sansone and Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown by Donna Goldstein.

AbstractAfter nearly 20 years of democratization, residents of Rio's favelas suffer high levels of civil and human rights abuse at the hands of both police and drug traffickers. The government is generally unable to guarantee the political order necessary to protect the rights of residents in these communities. Existing theories of democratization and advocacy networks offer little to explain how the types of endemic violence that affect poor neighborhoods in the developing world can be brought under control. Based on more than two years of participant observation and interviews in Rio de Janeiro, this article examines how democratic order can be extended to favelas. It argues that networks can link favela residents to organizations in civil society, and state actors can play a critical role in reducing violence and establishing democratic order.