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Date: April 30, 2024 Tue
Time: 2:12 am
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Results for kidnapping
23 results foundAuthor: International Crisis Group Title: Reforming Haiti's Security Sector Summary: Operations led by the UN peacekeeping mission (MINUSTAH) largely disbanded armed gangs in the slums of Haiti's cities, but progress has been undermined by persisting crime, political instability and natural disasters. Reforming Haiti's Security Sector , the latest report from the International Crisis Group, examines the difficulties in strengthening the justice sector and establishing an operational and sufficiently staffed police force - two crucial elements for the country's future stability and development. Making decisive and swift headway with security sector reform (SSR) is a vital part of any durable solution to Haiti's political and economic, as well as security problems", says Bernice Robertson, Crisis Group's Haiti Senior Analyst. "The process to create a 14,000-strong Haitian National Police (HNP) by 2011 must be speeded up". The fall of Prime Minister Jacques-Adouard Alexis during last April's protests, the drawn-out negotiations between President Rena Preval and parliament over his successor and new Prime Minister Michele Pierre-Louis' political difficulties have put Haiti's fragile governance once again under severe strain. Drug traffickers, organised criminals and corrupt politicians have mobilised the population for their own benefit and a procession of hurricanes in August and September has caused enormous damage to Haiti's physical infrastructure. HNP vetting needs to be concluded, the number of police cadets has to be increased and officers should receive further training in specific skills, including anti-kidnapping, riot control, counter-drug, border control, forensics and intelligence gathering and analysis. Special crime chambers ought to be created to try serious offenders, and the inhumane prison conditions have to be improved quickly. MINUSTAH should maintain its present military component but increase the number of international police, and deploy UN civil affairs and police personnel with special experience in border control to assist HNP units along the frontier with the Dominican Republic. "Haiti urgently needs a professional HNP as a prerequisite and bulwark if the new government is to move the country, with MINUSTAH and donor help, toward stability", says Markus Schultze-Kraft, Crisis Group's Latin America Program Director. "But it also needs a justice system capable of upholding the rule of law and programs that provide swift, visible relief to families enduring extremely harsh living conditions and natural disasters". Details: Brussels, Belgium: International Crisis Group, 2008. 41p. Source: Internet Resource: Latin America/Caribbean Report No. 28: Accessed August 30, 2010 at: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/haiti/28_reforming_haiti_s_security_sector.ashx Year: 2008 Country: Haiti URL: http://www.crisisgroup.org/~/media/Files/latin-america/haiti/28_reforming_haiti_s_security_sector.ashx Shelf Number: 119709 Keywords: Drug TraffickingKidnappingOrganized CrimePolice CorruptionPolice ReformViolence |
Author: Dalley, Marlene L. Title: The Left-Behind Parents' View of the Parental Abduction Experience: Its Characteristics and Effect on the Canadian Victims Summary: The purpose of this descriptive study was to determine the characteristics of parental abductions, including the financial difficulties experienced by the searching parent and the trauma experienced by the abducted child. Since both the study about left-behind parents, and about abducted children, involved the same sample group, it was decided the best approach was to gather this information from both groups in the same questionnaire. The study was limited to left-behind parents who contacted not-for-profit agencies for help finding their missing children. The not-for-profit agencies whose clients participated were Child Find Canada provincial offices, the Missing Children’s Network of Canada and the Missing Children Society of Canada. In most cases, the questionnaire was limited to information about one child in a family who went missing, except for factors like the age of the child. In seven cases, more than one child went missing. Forty-eight questionnaires were sent out and 19 returned. The number of children abducted was 28. This study found that over half the couples were separated or divorced when the child was abducted. Prior to the abduction, over half the child victims had a much better relationship with the abductor than did the left-behind parent, who rated their relationship as poor. All the children in this study were living in Canada at the time of the abduction, but 63 per cent were taken outside Canada. More children were located in the United States than other countries. Over half of the left-behind parents’ reported there was a known reason or connection to the place where the child was eventually located. Furthermore, an abduction act is not usually an impulsive act but a premeditated type conspiracy. Most abductors work alone during the actual “snatching” but after the event has happened they receive help from family, friends and relatives. At the time of the abduction, 75 per cent of the left-behind parents had a custody order. Over half the left-behind parents made a Hague application for the return of their children to Canada and found this process useful. Five of the 12 abductors who fled to another country were extradited back to Canada. This study showed that Canadian law enforcement took a longer period of time than law enforcement in other countries to find the missing child. Fifty-three per cent of the Canadian children were found in less than one year, while it took more than 1 ½ years to locate the other 47 per cent. Other researchers reported that most of the children were recovered in a few months. Details: Ottawa: National Missing Children Services, national Police Services, Royal Canadian Mounted Police, 2007. 61p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 1, 2010 at: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/omc-ned/leftbe-laisderr-eng.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Canada URL: http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/pubs/omc-ned/leftbe-laisderr-eng.pdf Shelf Number: 119721 Keywords: Child AbductionKidnappingKidnapping, ParentalMissing Children |
Author: Organization of Women's Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) Title: Prostitution and Trafficking of Women and Girls in Iraq Summary: In spite of the Organization of Women’s Freedom in Iraq (OWFI) background on women's rights, we did not expect nor comprehend the extent of the problem when we received reports of the kidnapping of women and girls in Baghdad in May 2003. When we started to gather reports from Baghdad neighborhoods the following summer, the numbers were shocking. We expressed our dismay to the media and fearing that a new and vicious era has attacked the women of Iraq. OWFI learned that trafficking of women is the hidden face of war, insecurity and chaos. In those days, we sympathized with women who were forced or maybe sold into prostitution. We did not have the same consideration for women who were already prostituted in brothels. We thought of them as the unfortunate margins of the society. It was only in 2006, that we noticed an epidemic rise in the number of women who prostituted for a living, whether in formal brothels, inregular working places, or in a hidden neighborhood hideaway. The numbers were obviously no longer something we could consider an unfortunate marginal minority. It was only then that we, in OWFI, decided to investigate the extent prostitution in Iraq, in order to better understand the underground industry of trafficking which thrives on the exploitation of women's flesh. We also needed to gather some background information about the history of prostitution and trafficking in Iraq. Our efforts started with documenting kidnappings in the first years, but gradually expanded into searching for places where girls and women are sold. We found ourselves documenting prostitution houses where the actual buying and selling take place. Eventually, it was impossible to separate one issue from the other. After confronting officials throughout 2008 and 2009 about the issue of trafficking, OWFI developed a reputation of a fierce defendant of women's integrity against the war-time disasters. As a result, eye-witnesses and the victims of trafficking began contacting OWFI with their stories. Some reports were of incidents too big for OWFI to handle. For example, distressed witnesses reported the kidnapping and trafficking 128 women from the city of Diyala in 2007. Following an interview with OWFI activist on MBC TV, the government campaigned against OWFI starting in May 2009 with active attacks over the public Al Iraqia television, and intervened to stop the airing of televised broadcasts where OWFI sought to tell the trafficking story. Frankly, we were intimidated and scared. Moreover, OWFI was advised by allies that publishing these facts may jeopardize our lives as we are touching onto one of the biggest industries in the world, and a new and thriving one in Iraq. We decided to be silent, stay safe, and keep our information to ourselves. OWFI could not maintain that position for long. A visit to the female juvenile prison in Baghdad in January 2010 reminded us that OWFI served an important mission that required courage, but facing our fears. It was the faces of 12 year old Mena and her sister that reminded us or our responsibilities. They were imprisoned after being sent back from the Arab Emirates as "prostitutes." Meeting those two children and hearing their stories was a heavy experience for the activists of OWFI. Some rushed out crying; some promised to help; while others hardened their resolve to document and reveal these crimes against the women or Iraq, including innocent young girls. Innocent girls who should still be enjoying childhood under the protection of their mothers were being incarcerated for the crime of prostitution, an ordeal in which they were modern-day slaves. At this point, we do not know if the numbers of Iraqi teenaged trafficking victims of the recent years are in the thousands, or tens of thousands. We do know that the Iraqi government does not want to hear the facts nor acknowledge the sufferings. Lawmakers do not feel an urgency to eradicate the crime of trafficking. One recent letter from an informed OWFI supporter gave us the ultimate push to publicize the facts. He had previously forwarded us a report which was too big to handle. That letter said, "You need to do something. The women and their families need to know that someone stands with them. The fact that 128 young women from Diyala were exported into sexual slavery within a few months cannot pass unnoticed. The traffickers and their official partners are set free while the trafficked women and their families suffer in silence, from shame and slavery… The case just cannot be closed". Details: New York: Women's International League for Peace and Freedom, United Nations Office, 2010. 84p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 16, 2011 at: http://www.peacewomen.org/assets/file/Resources/NGO/dispvaw_prostitutiontraffickingiraqwomen_owfi_march2010.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Iraq URL: http://www.peacewomen.org/assets/file/Resources/NGO/dispvaw_prostitutiontraffickingiraqwomen_owfi_march2010.pdf Shelf Number: 121724 Keywords: Child Sex TraffickingHuman TraffickingKidnappingProstitution (Iraq)Sex TraffickingSexual Exploitation |
Author: Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP) Title: Scoping Report on Missing and Abducted Children Summary: This scoping report provides an overview of what is known about the nature and scale of the multifaceted series of problems collectively known as ‘missing children’ and what the current response is, both locally and nationally. It also explains what role the Child Exploitation and Online Protection (CEOP) Centre will play in supporting the good work already being undertaken in the statutory and voluntary sectors and how it will work with practitioners in those sectors to protect and safeguard more children and tackle those who would seek to abuse them. CEOP intends to bring a different approach to this problem; one that seeks to use the limited resources available nationally to target problems that have a national/international complexion; require specific oversight and coordination; suggest some form of serious and/or organised criminality; and recognises that it is more economic to provide specialist resources at a national level to support local activity. Our approach will be partnership-driven, working with existing national and local organisations that already do valuable work and identifying new partners who may be able to help. Our aim will not be to replicate that already being done but to deliver complementary activity. The new CEOP capability will provide: educational resources and awareness for children and their parent/careers; training for the police; support to police operations through targeted research and analysis (for example development of problem profiles on nature and scale of the issues and emerging trends); operational support for forces and missing children by extending the CEOP ‘one stop shop’ to include online missing children resources; and assurance that co-ordination arrangements and capability are in place to manage complex or high profile missing children cases. A missing child is a child at risk from harm, irrespective of the length of time they are away from home or a caring environment. The causes are many, whether that it is simply losing them in a crowd or a busy shopping centre, through to family breakdown, becoming detached from society, looking for a better life in another country, being abducted from the street or lured by a ‘stranger’ on the internet. In 2009/10 there were an estimated 360,0001 missing person incidents, of which approximately 230,000 (64%) related to a child under the age of 18. In a CEOP child trafficking report from 2010, of the 287 children identified as potentially trafficked, 17% (50) of those children had gone missing from care at some point and 15% (42) were still recorded as missing. In 2004, a Home Office study of 768 incidents that were recorded as child abductions, 56% (447) involved a stranger and 23% (183) involved a parental dispute. Details: London: CEOP, 2011. 58p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 27, 2011 at: http://www.ceop.police.uk/Documents/ceopdocs/Missing_scopingreport_2011.pdf Year: 2011 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.ceop.police.uk/Documents/ceopdocs/Missing_scopingreport_2011.pdf Shelf Number: 122182 Keywords: Child Abduction (U.K.)Child ProtectionKidnappingMissing Children |
Author: IKV Pax Christi Title: Kidnapping is Booming Business: A Lucrative Political Instrument for Armed Goups Operating in Conflict Zones Summary: In 2001, Pax Christi Netherlands published a report about the kidnapping industry in Colombia. The report had two objectives. The first was to demonstrate that, in countries such as Colombia, the kidnapping practices of the illegal armed groups provided the financial fuel for the conflict. Secondly, the report was intended as an indictment. Kidnapping was presented as a violation of human rights and, within the context of a war or internal armed conflict, in many cases as a violation of international humanitarian law. Seven years on, and the number of kidnappings worldwide has risen even more. The crime has lost nothing of its potency as a cause of human tragedy. Kidnapping is a serious violation of the most elementary right of mankind: the right to a dignified existence. We set out in this report to provide a brief summary of the kidnapping issue on a global level, in particular of kidnapping in conflict regions and fragile states. The questions to be answered are concerned with the financial and political requirements that the kidnappers set, and with the impacts of these practices on the conflict and its perpetuation, and on the performance of the state. Following on from the previous report, the emphasis of this investigation is on kidnapping and extortion in Colombia, Ecuador and Venezuela. Firstly, we wished to ascertain how the kidnapping issue has developed in these countries in the past ten years. This raised the question of whether there was any relationship between the kidnapping practices in Colombia, and trends in this crime in the neighbouring countries. Another primary question regarding Colombia was concerned with the role of the kidnapping theme in peace talks and other dialogue between illegal armed groups and the Colombian government, and with the possible role of the theme in any future peace talks. The final chapter investigates the kidnapping-related policies of the EU member states, and as far as possible we compare their policies with their actions in practice in recent years. The main question is whether there is any European consensus on how to deal with kidnapping, and how to suppress the phenomenon. What obstacles are there to a joint approach to the kidnapping issue? Details: Utrecht, The Netherlands: IKV Pax Christi, 2008. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed August 9, 2011 at: http://www.ikvpaxchristi.nl/files/Documenten/LA%20Colombia/English%20Colombia/Eng%20brochure_Opmaak%201.pdf Year: 2008 Country: International URL: http://www.ikvpaxchristi.nl/files/Documenten/LA%20Colombia/English%20Colombia/Eng%20brochure_Opmaak%201.pdf Shelf Number: 122328 Keywords: ExtortionHostage TakingKidnapping |
Author: FATF-GAFI Title: Organised Maritime Piracy and Related Kidnapping for Ransom Summary: In recent years, there has been a growing concern over organised piracy on the high seas and kidnapping for ransom. These activities present a number of potential risks to the international financial system and challenges to the law enforcement and regulatory framework worldwide. Piracy for ransom and kidnapping for ransom are considered separate categories of serious criminal offences and as such, they are addressed independently in this study: 1) Maritime piracy for ransom: This section examines the financial implications of piracy as a major proceeds-generating offences. It provides a clear overview of patterns of illicit financial activity associated with this offence. 2) Kidnapping for ransom: This section focuses specifically on kidnapping as a means of financing terrorism and as a means to collect funds and support operations of terrorist groups. It provides a unique insight into the significance of revenue generated from this offence for a number of terrorist groups and criminal organisations, and the role of the formal financial sector. In addition to raising awareness of these important issues, the report also highlights some of the challenges associated with identifying, investigating, and tracing illicit flows associated with maritime piracy for ransom and kidnapping for ransom. Details: Paris, France: FATF-GAFI (Financial Action Task Force), 2011. 48p. Source: FATF Report: Internet Resource: Accessed on January 29, 2012 at http://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/40/13/48426561.pdf Year: 2011 Country: International URL: http://www.fatf-gafi.org/dataoecd/40/13/48426561.pdf Shelf Number: 123876 Keywords: KidnappingMaritime CrimeOrganized CrimePiracy |
Author: Uzzell, Donna Title: AMBER Alert Best Practices Summary: The AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert Program began following the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, TX. In response to this tragedy, representatives from law enforcement and the local media joined forces to develop and implement a groundbreaking series of protocols to be followed in the event of a child abduction. The program has since expanded to include 133 state, local, regional, tribal, and territorial plans in the United States and Canada. As of March 2012, AMBER Alerts helped directly in the safe recovery of 572 children in the United States. The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership involving law enforcement, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry. It is designed to disseminate timely, accurate information about abducted children, the suspected abductor(s), and the vehicle(s) used in the commission of the crime. During an AMBER Alert, an urgent news bulletin is broadcast over the airwaves and via text messages as well as on highway alert signs to enlist the aid of the public in finding an abducted child and stopping the perpetrator. Participants and subject-matter experts attending a federally sponsored national AMBER Alert conference identified emerging practices that have enhanced the ability of law enforcement, other stakeholders, and partners to safely recover missing and abducted children. This report provides a “what works” approach based on what was garnered during the conference as well as the experience and knowledge gained since the inception of the first AMBER Alert plan. It offers the field additional information about effective and promising practices and is designed for interpretation at the state and local levels in a manner that allows teams to consider their resource limitations and diverse demographic and geographic needs. In addition, because the AMBER Alert Program is a collaborative effort involving multiple agencies, the public, and the media, the report provides a general overview of each discipline’s responsibilities along with suggested practices to improve the approach to responding to cases of missing or abducted children. Significant progress has been made since 1996; however, as with any major multiagency initiative, all program partners and stakeholders must remain vigilant and work collaboratively to improve their understanding of the roles and responsibilities of every agency and organization involved in the program. Partners must be openminded when communicating with each other and always strive to meet the ultimate goal—keeping our children safe. Details: Washington, DC: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice, 2012. 64p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed September 5, 2012 at http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/232271.pdf Year: 2012 Country: United States URL: http://www.ojjdp.gov/pubs/232271.pdf Shelf Number: 126277 Keywords: AMBER AlertChild AbductionChild ProtectionEvaluative StudiesKidnappingLaw EnforcementMissing Children |
Author: Newiss, Geoff Title: Taken: A Study of Child Abduction in the UK Summary: This study gives an account of the current knowledge stock on child abduction. In July 2011, the ‘strategic and operational lead’ on missing and abducted children was transferred to the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre (CEOP). Understanding what is known – and not known – about child abduction should equip CEOP and its partners with a good sense of what the priorities are for protecting children from abduction. This knowledge could also contribute to establishing how best to respond when a child is abducted. There is no single, comprehensive definition of child abduction in the UK. Different laws in different parts of the UK criminalise various acts which involve the taking of a child. This study examines different types of child abduction including; • parental abduction (often resulting in a child being taken overseas). • abduction by a stranger. • abduction resulting from exploitation, revenge or financial gain. The Aims of this Study -- 1. To examine the number of abductions of children which occur in the UK. 2. To establish the different types of child abduction and provide information on the circumstances in which they occur. 3. To explore how data collection on child abduction can be improved so as to provide an effective measure of trends. 4. To identify any immediate policy and practice issues in response to child abduction. Details: London: Parents and Abducted Children Together (PACT) and Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, 2013. 76p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 25, 2013 at: http://ceop.police.uk/Documents/ceopdocs/TAKEN_Final%20Copy.pdf Year: 2013 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://ceop.police.uk/Documents/ceopdocs/TAKEN_Final%20Copy.pdf Shelf Number: 129157 Keywords: Child Abduction (U.K.)Child ProtectionKidnappingMissing ChildrenParental Abduction |
Author: Latin America Working Group Education Fund Title: Perilous Journey: Kidnapping and Violence against Migrants in Transit through Mexico Summary: Every year, hundreds of thousands of undocumented Central American migrants, primarily from Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, travel through Mexico on their way to the U.S. border. These migrants are vulnerable during their journey through Mexico, due both to the clandestine nature in which they are obligated to travel and to the generalized context of violence and impunity that dominates Mexico. Many suffer grave human rights abuses and violence along their journey at the hands of organized crime and corrupt officials. Kidnapping and extortion of migrants are among the most lucrative - and brutal - practices by organized crime in Mexico and are pervasive along the migratory route. Roughly five years ago, advocates at migrant shelters along the south-north train route began to systematically document and gather first-hand accounts of migrants who had survived kidnapping. What may have initially appeared to be sporadic and anecdotal accounts were soon recognized as reflecting a true humanitarian crisis rooted in flawed migration policy and a culture of impunity. A series of 33 of these testimonies were published by the Centro de Derechos Humanos Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez (Miguel Agustin Pro Juarez Human Rights Center, or Center Prodh) and the Casa del Migrante de Saltillo (Migrant Shelter of Saltillo, Coahuila) in the Cuaderno sobre Secuestro de Migrantes (Report on Migrant Kidnappings) in December 2011. In the pages that follow, English translations of a sampling of those testimonies can be found. The migrants' testimonies vividly describe their experiences during kidnapping - rape and sexual assault; physical abuse and mutilation; torture; food and sleep deprivation. In some cases, victims were forced to serve as witnesses to sexual and physical assaults, and even murder. In others, migrants were forced to carry out physical abuse of fellow kidnapping victims. Although it is difficult to read the accounts of the barbaric treatment that many migrants endured, these testimonies help us to grasp the profound human impact of this crisis and confirm the experiences recounted by kidnapped migrants elsewhere. From these stories, we get a more complete picture of the depth of this humanitarian crisis that has destroyed the dignity and safety of thousands of victims and traumatized families and communities across the region. Details: Washington, DC: Latin America Working Group Education Fund, 2013. 28p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed March 15, 2014 at: http://www.lawg.org/storage/LAWG2-13_Migrant_Report-v5.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.lawg.org/storage/LAWG2-13_Migrant_Report-v5.pdf Shelf Number: 131930 Keywords: Illegal ImmigrationKidnappingMigrantsOrganized CrimeViolence |
Author: Chaowsangrat, Chaowarit Title: Violence and Forced Internal Migrants with Special Reference to the Metropolitan Area of Bogota, Colombia (1990-2002) Summary: This thesis addresses topics of violence and forced internal migrants with special reference to the metropolitan area of Bogota, Colombia between 1990 and 2002. While there is much scholarly debate by historians and political scientists about conflict between the state, guerrillas and paramilitaries in rural areas, urban violence has been relatively neglected. Violence caused many people to migrate from rural to urban areas, so that, Colombia had by 2002 more internally displaced persons than any country except Sudan. The main aims of the thesis are 1) to analyse trends in violent crime; 2) to discuss citizen security strategies that were pursued between 1990 and 2002; and 3) to examine the survival strategies of forced internal migrants in Bogota comparing them to the strategies adopted by voluntary migrants and native residents. Chapter 1 focuses on urban homicide and kidnapping. In Colombia, 40 percent of the 25,000 annual homicides were committed in the ten largest cities during the late 1990s. The problem of kidnapping is examined by analysing changes in Colombian anti-kidnapping legislation and its application and by focusing on the authors, the victims and the risk-zones involved. Chapter 2 looks at the issue of perception and fear of violent crime. The concept of risk and the subjectivity of decision-making when facing insecurity are examined. Chapter 3 investigates citizen security strategies during the administrations of Presidents Cesar Gaviria (1990-1994), Ernesto Samper (1994- 1998) and Andres Pastrana (1998-2002). Chapter 4 develops an analysis of patterns of selectivity based on the notions of forced vis-a-vis voluntary migration and economic vis-a-vis non-economic migration. A research design collecting comparative data on households with diverse migration experiences residing in three locations within the metropolitan area of Bogota is applied. Chapter 5 explores the socioeconomic characteristics of forced migrants and compares them to voluntary migrants from outside and migrants who moved within Bogota. Details: London: University College London, 2011. 472p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed August 22, 2014 at: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1331874/1/1331874.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Colombia URL: http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1331874/1/1331874.pdf Shelf Number: 131358 Keywords: HomicidesKidnappingMigration and CrimeUrban AreasUrban SecurityUrban ViolenceViolenceViolent Crime (Colombia) |
Author: Human Rights Watch Title: "Those Terrible Weeks in their Camp". Boko Haram Violence against Women and Girls in Northeast Nigeria Summary: In April 2014, the Islamist group Boko Haram abducted 276 female students from a secondary school in Chibok, Borno State, in Nigeria's northeast. The group has abducted more than 500 women and girls from Borno, Yobe, and Adamawa States since 2009. Based field research in northeast Nigeria and Abuja, the capital city, including interviews with women and girls who escaped abduction or were freed from captivity, social workers, journalists, religious leaders, civil society workers, state and federal government officials, and witnesses of abductions, "Those Terrible Weeks in their Camp" documents how Boko Haram targets women and girls. The report highlights the harrowing experiences of some of the abducted women and girls, many of whom have endured physical and psychological abuse, forced conversions, coerced marriages, forced labor, sexual violence and rape. To ensure accountability, the report calls on Nigerian authorities to investigate and prosecute, based on international fair trial standards, those who committed serious crimes in violation of international law, including Boko Haram, members of the security forces and pro-government vigilante groups. In addition, the government should provide adequate measures to protect schools and the right to education, and ensure access to medical and mental health services to victims of abduction and other violence. The government should also ensure that hospitals and clinics treating civilian victims of Boko Haram atrocities are equipped with medical supplies to treat survivors of sexual and gender-based violence. Details: New York: HRW, 2014. 69p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 30, 2014 at: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/nigeria1014web.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Nigeria URL: http://www.hrw.org/sites/default/files/reports/nigeria1014web.pdf Shelf Number: 133881 Keywords: AbductionBoko HaramGender-Based ViolenceKidnappingRapeSexual ViolenceViolence Against GirlsViolence Against Women (Nigeria) |
Author: Felbab-Brown, Vanda Title: Changing the Game or Dropping the Ball? Mexico's Security and Anti-Crime Strategy under President Enrique Pena Nieto Summary: ANALYSIS - Even as the administration of Mexico's President Enrique Pena Nieto has scored important reform successes in the economic sphere, its security and law enforcement policy toward organized crime remains incomplete and ill-defined. Preoccupied with the fighting among vicious drug trafficking groups and the rise of anti-crime vigilante militias in the center of Mexico, the administration has for the most part averted its eyes from the previously highly-violent criminal hotspots in the north where major law enforcement challenges remain. - The Pena Nieto administration thus mostly continues to put out immediate security fires - such as in Michoacan and Tamaulipas - but the overall deterrence capacity of Mexico's military and law enforcement forces and justice sector continue to be very limited and largely unable to deter violence escalation and reescalation. - Identifying the need to reduce violence in Mexico as the most important priority for its security policy was the right decision of the Pena Nieto administration. But despite the capture of Mexico's most notorious drug trafficker, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, much of the security policy reform momentum that surrounded the Pena Nieto administration at the outset of its six-year term has prematurely dissipated. Key pillars of the policy are plodding along meekly, including the national gendarmerie, the new intelligence supercenter, and the mando unico. The October 2013 deadline to vet all police units for corruption and links to organized crime was missed once again and extended until October 2014. As with many institutional reforms in Mexico, there is large regional variation in the quality and even design of the reforms being implemented. At least, however, the Mexican Congress, overall a weak player in setting and overseeing anti-crime policy in Mexico, approved a new criminal code in the spring of 2014. The so-called National Code of Penal Procedure (Codigo Nacional de Procedimientos Penales) will be critical in establishing uniform application of criminal law across Mexico's thirty-one states and the Federal District, and standardizing procedures regarding investigations, trials, and punishment. - Instead of pushing ahead with institutional reforms, the Pena Nieto administration has highlighted poor coordination among national security agencies and local and national government units as a crucial cause of the rise of violent crime in Mexico. It has thus defined improving coordination as a key aspect of its anti-crime approach. - Despite its rhetoric and early ambitions, the Pena Nieto administration fell straight back not only into relying on the Mexican military in combination with the Federal Police to cope with criminal violence, but also doing so belatedly and with an essentially analogous lack of planning and prepositioning, and with essentially the same operational design as the previous Felipe Calderon administration. - Although homicides, including those perpetrated by drug trafficking organizations (DTOs), have decreased in Mexico, the drop did not reach the 50% reduction in the first six months in office that the Pena Nieto administration had promised. Moreover, in various parts of Mexico, the violence reduction cannot be necessarily attributed to government policies, but rather is the outcome of new balances of power being established among criminal groups in previously highly contested hotspots. Many of these balances of power among the DTOs had emerged already in the last years of the Felipe Calderon administration. In these areas of newly established criminal control and deterrence, even kidnapping and extortion might be leveling off and becoming more predictable, even as they are overall on the rise in Mexico. - In its security and law enforcement efforts, the Pena Nieto administration has largely slipped into many of the same policies of President Felipe Calderon. In particular, the current administration has adopted the same non-strategic high-value targeting that defined the previous administration. Perhaps with the exception of targeting the Zetas and Los Caballeros Templarios, this interdiction posture mostly continues to be undertaken on a non-strategic basis as opportunistic intelligence becomes available and without forethought, planning, and prepositioning to avoid new dangerous cycles of violence and renewed contestation among local drug trafficking groups. This development is partially the outcome of institutional inertia in the absence of an alternative strategy, and of operational simplicity, compared to, for example, a more effective but also more demanding policy of middle-level targeting. - Importantly, the Pena Nieto administration has sought to pay greater attention to and respect for human rights issues, such as by allowing civilian claims of human rights violations by Mexico's military forces to be tried in civilian courts and establishing a victims' compensation fund. But the efforts to increase rule of law, justice, and the protection of human rights and to reduce impunity and corruption remain very much a work in progress, with the government's resolve, policies, and outcomes varying widely among Mexico's states. - The Pena Nieto administration's focus on socio-economic anti-crime policies and other crime prevention measures is highly laudable. But its signature anti-crime socio-economic approach - the so-called poligonos program - has not been well-operationalized and is not integrated with law enforcement efforts. The discreet efforts remain scattered. The theory, implementation, and monitoring parameters of the national crime prevention strategy are not yet adequately worked out. These deficiencies undermine the program's effectiveness and risk dissipating the dedicated yet relatively small resources allocated to the effort as well as the effort's energy. Monitoring and evaluation of the effectiveness of socio-economic anti-crime efforts, including the poligonos approach, is particularly weak and nebulous. Details: Washington, DC: Latin American Initiative, Foreign Policy at Brookings, 2014. 48p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed November 13, 2014 at: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2014/11/mexico%20security%20anti%20crime%20nieto%20felbabbrown/mexico%20security%20anti%20crime%20nieto%20v1%20felbabbrown.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/research/files/papers/2014/11/mexico%20security%20anti%20crime%20nieto%20felbabbrown/mexico%20security%20anti%20crime%20nieto%20v1%20felbabbrown.pdf Shelf Number: 134070 Keywords: Criminal Justice PolicyCriminal NetworksDrug TraffickingDrug-Related ViolenceGangsHomicidesKidnappingOrganized CrimeViolence (Mexico)Violent Crime |
Author: Wilson, Christopher Title: Plan Tamaulipas: A New Security Strategy for a Troubled State Summary: Recognizing that the situation in Tamaulipas had reached crisis levels, in May, 2014, Mexico's top security officials met with their state level counterparts in Tamaulipas to unveil a new security strategy. At the heart of the conflict between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, Tamaulipas suffers from high rates of violent crime, including the nation's highest for kidnapping, large-scale cases of migrant abuse, and extremely weak state and local level law enforcement institutions and governance. By sending significant additional resources to Tamaulipas, the federal government made a strong and much needed commitment to support efforts to restore public security in the state. This short report analyzes the new strategy, describes the challenging local context, and offers a few recommendations that could serve to strengthen the effort. Details: Washington, DC: Wilson Center, Mexico Institute, 2014. 26p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 9, 2015 at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/New_Security_Strategy_Tamaulipas.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/New_Security_Strategy_Tamaulipas.pdf Shelf Number: 134580 Keywords: HomicidesKidnappingPublic SecurityViolence (Mexico)Violent Crime |
Author: Eguizabal, Cristina Title: Crime and Violence in Central America's Northern Triangle: How U.S. Policy Responses are Helping, Hurting, and Can Be Improved Summary: Throughout the spring and summer of 2014, a wave of unaccompanied minors and families from Central America began arriving at the U.S.-Mexican border in record numbers. During June and July over 10,000 a month were arriving. The unexpected influx triggered a national debate about immigration and border policy, as well as an examination of the factors compelling thousands of children to undertake such a treacherous journey. Approximately two-thirds of these children are from Central America's Northern Triangle-El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras. According to interviews with the children their motives for migrating ranged from fleeing some of the world's highest homicide rates, rampant extortion, communities controlled by youth gangs, domestic violence, impunity for most crimes, as well as economic despair and lack of opportunity. Many hoped to reunite with family members, especially parents, who are already in the United States. The wave of migrants has underscored chronic problems in the region that stem back decades. It is often assumed that international drug trafficking explains the surge in violence since 2009, but other important factors are also at play. Drug trafficking is certainly a factor, especially in areas where criminal control of territory and trafficking routes is contested, but drugs do not explain the entirety of the complex phenomenon. Other factors have also contributed. While there are important differences among the three countries, there are also common factors behind the violence. Strong gang presence in communities often results in competition for territorial and economic control through extortion, kidnapping and the retail sale of illegal drugs. Threats of violence and sexual assault are often tools of neighborhood control, and gang rivalries and revenge killings are commonplace. Elevated rates of domestic abuse, sexual violence, and weak family and household structures also contribute as children are forced to fend for themselves and often chose (or are coerced into) the relative "safety" of the gang or criminal group. Likewise, important external factors such a weak capacity among law enforcement institutions, elevated levels of corruption, and penetration of the state by criminal groups means impunity for crime is extraordinarily high (95 percent or more), and disincentives to criminal activity are almost non-existent. Public confidence in law enforcement is low and crime often goes unreported. U.S. policy and practice are also a major contributing factor to the violence. U.S. consumption of illegal drug remains among the highest in the world, and U.S. and Mexican efforts to interdict drug trafficking in the Caribbean and Mexico has contributed to the trade's relocation to Central America. Furthermore, the policy of deporting large numbers of young Central Americans in the 1990s and 2000s, many of them already gang members in the United States, helped transfer the problem of violent street gangs from the United States to Central America's northern triangle. El Salvador now has the largest number of gang members in Central America followed close behind by Honduras and Guatemala. Finally, the trafficking of firearms, especially from the United States, has also contributed to the lethality and morbidity of crime. Efforts to slow firearms trafficking from the United States have encountered many domestic and political barriers and continue largely unchecked. Over the past year, the Woodrow Wilson Center's Latin American Program has undertaken an extensive review of the principal United States security assistance program for the region-the Central America Regional Security Initiative (CARSI). This review has focused on the major security challenges in the Northern Triangle countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras and how CARSI seeks to address these. This publication includes country reports on each country including a review of the current in-country security context, as well as assessing CARSI's effectiveness for addressing these challenges. The report also includes a chapter providing an in-depth analysis of the geographic distribution of homicides and an examination of how such an analysis can help policy makers design more effective targeted strategies to lower violence. A final chapter outlining policy options for the future completes the report. Details: Washington, DC: Latin America Program, Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, 2015. 155p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed May 26, 2015 at: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/FINAL%20PDF_CARSI%20REPORT_0.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Central America URL: http://www.wilsoncenter.org/sites/default/files/FINAL%20PDF_CARSI%20REPORT_0.pdf Shelf Number: 135789 Keywords: Border SecurityDrug TraffickingDrug-Related ViolenceGangsHomicidesIllegal ImmigrationImmigrationKidnappingOrganized CrimeTrafficking in Firearms |
Author: Santamaria, Gema Title: Drugs, gangs and vigilantes: how to tackle the new breeds of Mexican armed violence Summary: Since 2007 Mexico has experienced a steady increase in lethal and non-lethal forms of violence, including kidnappings, extortion, extra-judicial killings and forced disappearances. This spiral of violence has been driven by the consolidation and expansion of non-conventional armed actors operating in an institutional and political climate characterised by pervasive levels of corruption, impunity and criminal collusion. Public indignation over this state of affairs reached a high after the disappearance of 43 trainee teachers in the town of Iguala in September 2014. This report analyses the objectives, structures and impact of non-conventional armed actors in Mexico, focusing on drug-trafficking organisations, street gangs and so-called self-defence forces. It examines the pitfalls and lessons learned from the country's past and present security strategies, and lays out the basis for an alternative approach to understanding and tackling non-conventional armed violence. Based on a careful analysis of the dynamic and hybrid character of these groups, the report argues for an approach that prioritises the fight against corruption and the protection of embattled communities through localised prevention, geographic sequencing and knowledge-based policing. Details: Oslo: Norwegian Peacebuilding Resource Centre, 2014. 9p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 2, 2015 at: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/Santamar%C3%ADa_NOREF_Drugs%2C_gangs_and_vigilantes_December%202014.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Mexico URL: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/Santamar%C3%ADa_NOREF_Drugs%2C_gangs_and_vigilantes_December%202014.pdf Shelf Number: 135843 Keywords: Drug TraffickingHomicidesKidnappingOrganized CrimePolitical CorruptionViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: National Crime Research Centre (Kenya) Title: Emerging Crimes: The Case of Kidnappings in Kenya Summary: The rising incidents of the crime of kidnap in Kenya have raised serious security concerns among citizens in general and security agents in particular. This gave impetus to the National Crime Research Centre to study the different aspects of the crime. Specific emphasis was given to prevalence of the crime of kidnap by type; motives and factors encouraging kidnappings; treatment, conditions and coping mechanisms of victims of kidnappings; effects of the crime of kidnap; the role of the Government and the community in kidnappings; interventions and their effectiveness in addressing kidnappings; and challenges faced in preventing and combating kidnappings and their possible solutions. The study was carried out in 20 counties in Kenya. The study was descriptive in nature. The population for the study consisted of adult male and female members of the public who were staying in the selected localities/counties at the time of the study. The study utilized both probability and non-probability sampling techniques. Selection of the study sites employed simple random sampling and purposive sampling. At least 36 counties in Kenya had been reported to have experienced incidents of kidnappings. The 20 counties were selected using simple random sampling of an arbitrary 50 percent of all the counties that had experienced incidents of kidnappings in each of the Nairobi, Central, Coast, North Eastern, Western, Nyanza, Eastern and Rift Valley regions of Kenya (formerly, the eight provinces in Kenya). Specific sites for the study were selected purposively after visits to respective County Commissioners who assisted in identifying areas that had experienced incidents of kidnappings in their jurisdictions. Sample respondents were members of public and were selected on the basis of their availability and willingness to respond. Key Informants were selected purposively because they were known and knowledgeable people in the subject matter. Victims of kidnappings and kidnappers for case studies were not easy to trace, hence availability sampling of victims and kidnappers was undertaken. Snow ball sampling was also used to draw and identify victims and kidnappers. A sample of 1326 members of public who were 54.8% males and 45.2% females was drawn. Qualitative and quantitative methods of data analysis were utilized. Quantitative data were analysed through descriptive statistics using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences. The information was then presented in distribution frequency and percentage tables and figures (bar graphs and pie charts). The qualitative data was analyzed through interpretation of responses of the Key Informants, victims, kidnappers and reporters from the institutions addressing kidnappings. All information from the analyzed data was presented in themes guided by the research objectives. There are a number of findings from the study. The crime of kidnap was found to be a major security problem occurring in all counties and the country in general. Several types of kidnappings occurred differently in the counties with kidnapping committed by a stranger being the most prevalent. Other types of kidnappings were: kidnapping committed by an acquaintance; being kidnapped and forced to withdraw money from an Automated Teller Machine (ATM); inside kidnapping; kidnapping committed by a family member and virtual kidnapping. Kidnapping committed by a stranger was more prevalent in Murang'a County followed by Kirinyaga and Migori. Kidnapping committed by an acquaintance was more prevalent in Kirinyaga followed by Murang'a and Nyeri. Being kidnapped and forced to withdraw money from an ATM was more prevalent in Nyeri County followed by Nairobi and Murang'a. Nairobi County was leading in inside kidnapping followed by Nyeri and Nakuru. Kidnapping committed by a family member was more prevalent in Nyeri, Kirinyaga and Nairobi. Virtual kidnapping was more prevalent in Nairobi, Nyeri and Kirinyaga. Findings showed that the majority of the victims of kidnappings were children and juveniles aged below 18 years. However, youth aged 18 to 35 years and persons aged above 35 years were also victims of the crime. The victims were both male and female but females were the majority. The majority of the victims were Kenyans and they and/or their families were averagely stable economically. The majority of the victims of kidnappings were mainly members of wealthy families followed by business persons, Government Officers and tourists. The majority of the kidnappers were mainly youth aged 18-35 years, they were males, they were of Kenyan nationality and majority of them were not averagely stable economically. The majority of the kidnappers were strangers, followed by acquaintances of victims, organized criminal and street gangs, romantic partners, family members and security agents. The perpetrators of kidnappings were found to be mainly strangers, followed by friends and acquaintances, criminal gangs and militia, romantic partners and family members and relatives. The findings showed that kidnappings were mainly executed by groups of kidnappers who, to a large extent, also used illegal arms and weapons against their victims. Most kidnappers used force to get their victims with enticing and luring being the next popular way of executing kidnappings. Victims were mostly kidnapped when going home, with others being kidnapped when on duty or business premises or when closing business. The motives for kidnapping were socio-cultural (including religious and moral), economic and political. Revenge was the major the socio-cultural motive for kidnappings, ransom payment was the major economic motive while overcoming and/or reducing political rivalry was the major political motive for kidnapping was. The factors encouraging kidnappings in Kenya included unemployment especially among the youth, high incidence of poverty, existence of gangs and militia, retrogressive cultural practices, instability and conflicts in some regions, inefficiency and/or corruption among some members of the security system, political competition and rivalry, marginalization of some areas, proliferation of illegal small arms and light weapons and competition for control of resources. The findings showed that victims encountered mostly negative treatments and conditions during kidnapping episodes. These included physical abuse, sexual abuse, being killed, mental/psychological abuse, confinement and isolation, poor feeding and being drugged. The effects of the crime of kidnap were diverse and included: causing fear among victims and other community members, disruption of social peace, post traumatic stress and depression, loss of funds through ransom, reduction of economic investment, closure of businesses, reduction of business profits, led to other crimes, disruption of educational programs and unwarranted increased cost of providing security. The community was found to participate in the increasing cases of kidnappings in Kenya in ways such as inadequate collaboration with security organs, lack of community cohesion and don't care attitude, poor upbringing/socialization of children, engaging in retrogressive cultural practices, apathy of community members towards crime and inadequate sensitization of children on kidnappings. However, some community members had also participated in addressing kidnappings through collaboration with security organs and sensitization and awareness creation on kidnapping. The best way for the community to participate in addressing kidnappings was through: fully embracing and increasing participation in Nyumba Kumi and Community Policing Initiatives, increased sensitization and awareness creation on kidnapping issues, increased community collaboration with security agencies and establishment of a hotline for reporting kidnapping cases. The Government was reported not to be doing enough in addressing kidnappings. Reasons given included: there were increased cases of kidnapping; there was slow response by security agents on kidnapping incidents and corruption in government agencies dealing with crime hindered efforts in addressing kidnappings. However, 41.6% said the Government was doing enough and argued that it was mitigating kidnappings using its security agencies through: increased number of security agents who are well trained; deployment of security personnel in border points; adoption of modern technology to fight crime; formation of special units to deal with different types of crime; swift response in kidnapping incidents by security teams; and arresting and charging some kidnappers. Improving Government's efforts in addressing kidnappings was found to require, among others, creation of more employment opportunities for youth, adequate facilitation of security agencies, instituting stiff penalties for kidnap offenders, undertaking more awareness campaigns, opening up of more economic opportunities in country, elimination of corruption, enactment and/or effective implementation of anti-kidnapping laws and increased collaboration with relevant stakeholders. Details: Nairobi, Kenya: National Crime Research Centre, 2014. 151p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 1, 2015 at: http://crimeresearch.go.ke/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=4:preliminary-reports&Itemid=496 Year: 2014 Country: Kenya URL: http://crimeresearch.go.ke/index.php?option=com_phocadownload&view=category&id=4:preliminary-reports&Itemid=496 Shelf Number: 136935 Keywords: Kidnapping |
Author: Briscoe, Ivan Title: New humanitarian frontiers: Addressing criminal violence in Mexico and Central America Summary: Parts of Central America and Mexico are suffering a humanitarian crisis which stems directly from expanding criminal violence. In vulnerable communities in the region there are mass casualties on a par with conflicts elsewhere in the world - rape, kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion, forced displacement (both internally and across borders), migration of unaccompanied minors from crime-ravaged communities and exploitation and murder. The report pinpoints three structural challenges to a stronger humanitarian agenda in response to criminal violence in the region: the features and characteristics of criminal violence, the presence of self-sustaining regional mixed migration and the flow of narcotics and the extremely fragile nature of Central American states. The case for a reinvigorated humanitarian approach to criminal violence is stronger than ever. There are notable opportunities. This report argues that the existing strengths of humanitarian organisations in addressing criminal violence could be responsibly enhanced. Details: Geneva, SWIT: Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre, 2015. 25p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 27, 2015 at: http://www.internal-displacement.org/assets/publications/2015/201510-am-central-americas-violence-en.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Central America URL: http://www.internal-displacement.org/assets/publications/2015/201510-am-central-americas-violence-en.pdf Shelf Number: 137158 Keywords: Drug-Related ViolenceExtortionHomicidesHuman TraffickingKidnappingViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Briscoe, Ivan Title: Crime after Jihad: armed groups, the state and illicit business in post-conflict Mali Summary: Mali's descent into a war of secession at the start of 2012 was a conflict foretold. Yet what followed proved radically distinct from the country's three previous episodes of insurgency in its vast, impoverished and arid north. Radical Islamists seized control of the main urban centres of northern Mali, displacing the Tuareg rebels with whom they had struck a working relationship. In the capital, Bamako, a military coup led by an unknown and low-ranking army captain overthrew a president who had been in power for a decade. An uneasy stand-off came into being: Mali's debilitated military guarded the frontiers to the south, while Islamist hardliners and criminals meted out their own version of sharia justice across the north. As is well known, the decomposition of Malian state authority was finally halted early in 2013. Faced with an Islamist advance to the south, French military forces embarked on a lightning intervention that scattered the extremists and reasserted control over the north. Since then, the pace of Mali's post-conflict recovery and stabilization has been astonishing: a UN peacekeeping mission and a host of bilateral and EU programmes have been put into place; a new president and a new National Assembly have been elected; peace talks with the more moderate armed groups, though stuttering, are under way. But as the national government and the international community leave behind the heat of the crisis, it is now incumbent on them to understand what caused such a perilous tailspin to start in Mali, so as to prevent it from reoccurring. As in other countries of West Africa and the Sahel, transnational organized crime has played a prominent role in the affairs of Mali over the past two decades, above all in the north. Drug trafficking, including large consignments of high-value cocaine from Latin America, as well as kidnapping rackets led by Islamist terror groups operating freely across the borders of the Sahel, are both widely regarded as playing key roles in fomenting the instability, unrest and violence that climaxed in 2012. However, the depiction of a crime-terror nexus in Mali, whereby criminal profits feed insurgent arms and recruitment, does not do justice to the multi-faceted role played by illicit activity across the country. This paper is an attempt to marshal all the available evidence, along with the insights provided by experts in Mali, so as to understand the relations that were forged prior to 2012 between criminal enterprises, communities, political and social elites, armed groups, the Malian state and neighbouring countries. On the basis of recent developments, the paper seeks to outline the likely adaptations that the main illicit networks will now make, and to draw out some recommendations as to how best to temper the criminality and violence that menace Mali's post-conflict transition. At the heart of this analysis is an account of how Mali was both the victim of the displacement of drug-trafficking routes and armed jihadist activity from other countries, and a deeply complicit partner in profiting from the incoming wave of illicit trade and Islamist terror. Behind this willing complicity lay the particular vulnerabilities of Malian state and society. Government in Bamako, the country's capital, had by 2006 replaced direct authority over the north with sporadic, ham-fisted interference. Chronic competition between the north's many ethnic, caste and clan groups offered numerous possibilities for the political elite in Bamako to find useful allies to do its bidding. However, these social fissures were also fodder for the designs of other, newer parties: nearby states such as Algeria and Libya, criminal organizations seeking to traffic drugs, and radical armed groups. The resulting transactions between supranational forces and local ethnic or tribal factions were to set Mali on the way to the fourth, and arguably the most threatening, insurgency of its post-colonial history. But Mali's war was not merely the product of radicalized and internationalized disaffection in the north. The conflict also threw a harsh light on the degradation of the state itself. A model for democratic virtue in Africa, half of whose budget was financed by foreign donors, Mali re-emerged after its coup as a state that had been afflicted by multiple vices. Illicit practices had become rampant across the public sector, corroding popular faith in politicians; Mali's celebrated elections had in fact received some of the lowest turnouts in the democratic world. Moreover, the day-to-day corruption, patronage and nepotism formed a permissive soil on which an all-powerful presidency could nurture the construction of a shadow state. The greatest drug trafficking scandal of Malian history, the Air Cocaine case of 2009, suggests that official complicity in the criminal business had penetrated the highest echelons of power. Mali has now set the course for a recovery of legitimate and accountable state authority. Its new president, Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, has backed a clean sweep of the judicial system and a Truth Commission on violence in the north. Captain Sanogo, the coup leader, is in jail, along with his accomplices. Key Islamist leaders and narco-traffickers have been scattered or neutered, as have the masterminds of the shadow state. From the information available, it would seem that major illicit trafficking across the north has also diminished in scale. However, it is far too soon to proclaim an end to the crisis. Occasional terrorist attacks and ethnic skirmishes remain a constant headache for local people and UN peacekeepers. At the same time, the pre-war illicit networks are never far away: clearing corruption from the public sector is set to be a long and arduous haul, while illicit networks in political life are destined to regroup and reconfigure, as they have in many other criminalized environments, notably in Latin America. Nearby countries such as Niger and Libya have quickly emerged as staging posts in the Saharan and Sahelian criminal economy. As Mali negotiates its post-conflict recovery, the focus must be directed at ways to reduce the systemic threat from criminal business while avoiding the sorts of blind repressive policies that have engineered insurgencies in Afghanistan, or terrible bloodshed in Mexico. This paper outlines a number of approaches that should lie at the heart of such a balanced, conflict-sensitive strategy towards crime. A robust and inclusive political settlement for the north is critical, though for this to work attention must now focus on how decentralized or autonomous regional authorities can be supervised without the risk of meddling from Bamako. Provision of security and security reform must be imbued with realism as to what can be achieved with the institutions available, and should be shaped by an emphasis on intelligence-led policing that seeks to sever the most dangerous criminal linkages to power-brokers. Counter-terrorism must also be wise to the intermediation of criminal figures, and to the armed networks that illicit businessmen have cultivated. And lastly, it remains imperative that renascent Mali attacks the roots of the shadow state, and is backed by an international community willing to abandon its hunger for fixers in the state and short-term solutions. Details: The Hague: Conflict Research Unit, the Clingendael Institute, 2014. 65p. Source: Internet Resource: CRU Report: Accessed October 30, 2015 at: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/Crime%20after%20Jihad.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Mali URL: http://www.clingendael.nl/sites/default/files/Crime%20after%20Jihad.pdf Shelf Number: 137180 Keywords: Counter-TerrorismCriminal NetworksDrug TraffickingIllicit NetworksKidnappingOrganized CrimeTerrorismViolence |
Author: Jones, Nathan P. Title: The State Reaction: A Theory of Illicit Network Resilience Summary: This dissertation elucidates the relationship between a profit-seeking illicit network's (PSIN's) business strategy and resilience. The dissertation finds that territorial PSIN business strategies challenge "the territorially sovereign state" through activities like kidnapping and extortion. The intensity of the state reaction to the illicit network was the single most important factor in its ability to survive disruptive events. The state, in this case Mexico, reacted more intensely to territorial PSIN's in collaboration with civil society, other states and rival "transactional" PSIN's. In this case the state (Mexico) dissolved a territorial PSIN, suggesting that the state is capable of effectively confronting this illicit network type. On the other hand, the case finds that the state was corrupted by transactional PSINs whose business strategies made them resilient. This finding suggests that through corruption, transactional PSINs will pose a long-term threat to democratic institutionalization in Mexico and internationally anywhere that states must address these illicit networks. The dissertation is an in-depth historical case study of the Tijuana Cartel, also known as the Arellano Felix Organization (AFO). Through archival research and interviews with experts on the illicit network a case study was constructed. Experts interviewed for the dissertation during nine months of fieldwork in Mexico City and Tijuana, included: journalists, law enforcement, scholars, extortion victims and businessmen. Given the similar structures of illicit networks, the findings of this dissertation have important implications for understanding other drug trafficking organizations, prison gangs, terrorists, insurgencies, arms traffickers, among a host of other potential "dark network" actors. Details: Irvine, CA: University of California, Irvine, 2011. 299p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 18, 2016 at: http://wpsa.research.pdx.edu/awards/jones.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Mexico URL: http://wpsa.research.pdx.edu/awards/jones.pdf Shelf Number: 139085 Keywords: Dark NetworksExtortionKidnappingOrganized Crime |
Author: Jacobsen, Karen Title: Ransom, Collaborators, Corruption: Sinai Trafficking and Transnational Networks from Eritrea to Israel. A Case Study of the Eritrean Migration System Summary: Each month thousands of men, women, and children flee Eritrea as a result of grave violations of human rights committed by the Eritrean government. Political oppression and religious persecution have led to the imprisonment or disappearance of thousands of citizens, as well as mass flight. Travelling via Sudan and Egypt, 36,000 Eritreans have made their way to Israel over the past six years. Most have gone through a well-organized network of people smugglers and human traffickers. Many initially contacted smugglers but were later deceived, held hostage for large ransoms, and physically abused. Others had no intention to come to Israel and were kidnapped in East Sudan to then be sold to Sinai traffickers who also abused them while they were held hostage for ransom. For the last two years, Israeli, Egyptian, and international human rights organizations have reported that increasing numbers of Eritreans have undergone severe torture and abuse while being held hostage for months at a time in the Sinai. Human rights organizations have documented the brutality of traffickers in the Sinai. Eritrean asylum seekers have testified to gang rape of men and women, whipping, and various methods of torture, including burial in the sand, electric shocks, hanging by one’s hands and legs, burning with hot-iron bars, and prolonged exposure to the sun. This paper seeks to expand our empirical knowledge by describing and analysing the processes and actors, including Eritrean families both in the diaspora and in Eritrea, involved in the transnational networks supporting and enabling the smuggling and trafficking of Eritreans through the Sinai to Israel. We focus only on the Sinai route, although migration from Eritrea also occurs south to other parts of Africa, west through Sudan to Libya, and east across the Red Sea. The Sinai route actors include smugglers from the Rishaida tribe in East Sudan, Sudanese and Egyptian authorities, Bedouin smugglers in Egypt, and Eritrean collaborators who work with the traffickers as intermediaries. It is likely that similar smuggling – and probably trafficking – networks also exist for these other migration routes. Details: Somerville, MA: Feinstein International Center, Tufts University, 2013. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 20, 2016 at: http://fic.tufts.edu/assets/Ransom-Collaborate-Corrupt-8-12.pdf Year: 2013 Country: Africa URL: http://fic.tufts.edu/assets/Ransom-Collaborate-Corrupt-8-12.pdf Shelf Number: 147780 Keywords: Human SmugglingHuman TraffickingKidnapping |
Author: Freeman, Marilyn Title: Parental Child Abduction: The Long-Term Effects Summary: This small-scale qualitative study was undertaken to investigate the lived experiences of those who were abducted many years earlier. The aim was to learn whether, and how, in the views of the participants, these abductions had affected their lives, and whether such effects had continued long-term. The study is based on personal interviews undertaken by the principal investigator with 34 participants including three sets of abducted children and one set of an abducted child and non-abducted sibling. The interviews took place principally in England and the USA in 2011–2012, with an opportunity for updating by email provided in 2014. The study found that a high proportion of the participants reported suffering very significant effects from their abductions in terms of their mental health, and that these effects were ongoing into their adult lives very many years after the abduction. These findings tend, therefore, to support those from earlier studies about the long-lasting effects of abduction which are emphasised in this project by the direct reporting of the abducted children, as adults, long after the event. The study concludes that, as the effects of abducted can be seriously negative and long-lasting, more must be done to protect children against abduction and its effects. Recommendations are made relating to the prevention of abduction, reunification when abduction occurs, and support for abducted children and their families including where the abducted child is not found, or is not returned to the State of habitual residence, as well as when the child is reunified with the left-behind family. Details: Bushey Heats, Herts, UK: International Centre for Family Law and Practice, 2014. 40p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 21, 2016 at: http://www.famlawandpractice.com/researchers/longtermeffects.pdf Year: 2014 Country: International URL: http://www.famlawandpractice.com/researchers/longtermeffects.pdf Shelf Number: 147764 Keywords: Child AbductionChild ProtectionKidnappingMissing ChildrenParental AbductionParental Kidnapping |
Author: Newiss, Geoff Title: Police-recorded child abduction and kidnapping 2012/13 to 2013/14: England, Wales and Northern Ireland Summary: In 2014 Parents and Abducted Children Together (PACT) sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to each police force in the UK. The FOI requests asked forces to provide the number of parental child abductions, non-parental child abductions and child kidnappings recorded in 2012/13 and 2013/14. This statistical paper reports the key findings: Overall, child abduction and child kidnapping offences increased by 13 per cent from 2012/13 to 2013/14, to a total of nearly 900 offences across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. Non-parental child abductions increased at more than twice the rate of parental child abductions (14 per cent compared to 6 per cent). Child kidnappings increased at an even higher rate of 18 per cent over the two year period. Whilst increases in this type of offence are clearly alarming, the explanation for their increase may – at least in part – lie in changes to police crime-recording practices. There is enormous variation between regions and police forces in the number, and rate, of child abduction and kidnapping offences. Whilst the large city police forces all recorded higher rates of child abduction and kidnapping offences than the national average, some smaller forces recorded even larger increases. Details: London: Parents and Abducted Children Together (PACT), 2015. 32p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 21, 2016 at: http://www.childabduction.org.uk/images/PACT_Child_Abduction_report_2015_final.pdf Year: 2015 Country: United Kingdom URL: http://www.childabduction.org.uk/images/PACT_Child_Abduction_report_2015_final.pdf Shelf Number: 147796 Keywords: Child Abduction (U.K.)Child ProtectionKidnappingMissing ChildrenParental Abduction |
Author: Newton, Samuel P. Title: Kidnapping Reconsidered: Courts' Merger Tests do not Remedy the Inequities which Developed from Kidnapping's Sensationalized and Racialized History Summary: Kidnapping has a troubled history in the law. It was instituted, perpetuated, and expanded almost exclusively after publicized and sensationalized cases where the children of wealthy whites were taken. In the same periods, courts and legislatures largely ignored the cries of minorities, particularly slaves or free blacks, that they too had been kidnapped. In the public hysteria over the relatively few kidnappings of white children, legislatures expanded the offense's definition to the point that it lost all meaning and became unconstitutionally vague. To remedy this problem, courts created kidnapping merger tests. But these tests have had little consistency or coherency, and troublingly, they have done little to solve the issues of discriminatory enforcement that have plagued kidnapping since its inception. Legislatures should reconsider kidnapping and narrow its definition in order to prevent the arbitrary use of police or prosecutorial discretion. If legislatures refuse to act, then courts should strike down their kidnapping statutes as vague and as violations of double jeopardy and equal protection, as well as a cruel and unusual punishment. Details: Moscow, Idaho: University of Idaho, 2019. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 21, 2019 at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/332182582_Kidnapping_Reconsidered_Courts'_Merger_Tests_Do_Not_Remedy_the_Inequities_Which_Developed_from_Kidnapping's_Sensationalized_and_Racialized_History Year: 2019 Country: United States URL: https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3364421 Shelf Number: 156738 Keywords: Criminal Law Criminal Procedure Double Jeopardy Enforcement Equal Protection Kidnapping |