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Date: April 29, 2024 Mon
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Results for slums
23 results foundAuthor: Amnesty International Title: Ending Domestic Violence in Albania: The Next Steps Summary: This report analyses the progress made in addressing domestic violence in Albania over that last three years after the adoption of the Law on Measures against Violence in Family Relations. It concludes that more women now have confidence to report domestic violence to the authorities. Yet, despite the growing number of petitions made for protection orders, the Albanian government needs to take further measures to implement the law and ensure the prevention of, protection from, and prosecution of domestic violence. Details: London: Amnesty International, 2010. 16p. Source: Internet Resource Year: 2010 Country: United States URL: Shelf Number: 119167 Keywords: Domestic Violence (Albania)FavelasGangsPolice ReformSlumsViolence (Brazil)Violence Against WomenViolent Crime |
Author: Barenboim, Igor Title: Does Crime Breed Inequality? Theory and Evidence from the Favelas in Rio de Janeiro Summary: Crime and income inequality are positively correlated. Many have argued that the causation from the latter to the former; to our knowledge, the reverse channel of causality has not been studied. We present two simple mechanisms through which crime can breed inequality, both based on the idea that private protection from crime is a normal good. In our first hypothesis, crime distorts savings decisions by lowering expected returns, and more so for the poor who can afford less protection. Our second model explores how crime can generate inequality by diferentially affecting location decisions according to income. We test these ideas empirically in the extremely high-crime context of slums ("favelas") in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, and find suggestive evidence that higher crime leads to more inequality within favelas. We also show evidence of the savings mechanism, with little support for the spatial mechanism in this context. Details: Cambridge, MA: Harvard University (Working Paper), 2009. 50p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 23, 2010 at: http://www.eea-esem.com/files/papers/EEA-ESEM/2009/448/Favelas_draft18Jan09%202.pdf Year: 2009 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.eea-esem.com/files/papers/EEA-ESEM/2009/448/Favelas_draft18Jan09%202.pdf Shelf Number: 120056 Keywords: Crime RatesInequalityPovertyPrivate ProtectionSlumsSocioeconomic Status |
Author: Rwengabo, Sabastiano Title: Neither Formal nor Marketized: Privatized Security in the Slum Areas of Kampala City, Uganda Summary: The simultaneity of commercialized/marketized; and non-formal, non-market, security arrangements in an urban setting brings new insights to our understanding of privatization of security. Security privatisation is a current global phenomenon with various dimensions and dynamics. There are aspects of privatized security whose understanding is vital for our appreciation of today’s security spectrum. The shift from state-centric security provisioning to the involvement of various non-state actors has changed the security landscape. It has necessitated new foci of analysis that transcend the focus on commercialized security. Beyond ‘the market for force’ and ‘selling security’ (Avant, 2001, 2007), new private security arrangements have emerged. These are not limited to organized private security providers like companies or criminals and rebels (Rwengabo, 2009): they extend to non-organized, non-formal private security mechanisms. So, privatization of security as understood in the literature (Jager & Kummel, 2007; Gounev, 2006; Bourne, 2004; Aketch, 2007; Gumedze, 2008) cascades beyond marketization and formalization, to informalization as well. Studies of privatization of security are yet to address the question of informalization of security. This study attempts to address security informalization to break ground for newer approaches to the understanding of non-formal and non-market security arrangements in our midst. It was carried out in the slum areas of Kampala City, Uganda. There is general lack of policy-specific and scholarly, attention, to Uganda’s urban security spectrum. The need for an in-depth investigation contributing to knowledge and developing new insights on privatized security also abounds. The steady increase in private security actors leaves unanswered, the question of whether states as actors charged with providing security has given way to non-state actors in the management of security, and why this development. The phenomenon calls for deeper analyses extending the understanding of security to unravel non-formal, non-market security mechanisms developed in slum areas, and interrogate the role of the state in supporting and/or frustrating these informal arrangements. Moreover the development of non-formal and non-market private security has implications for governing the security sub-sector. This study sought to examine these security arrangements amongst slum dwellers; how these arrangements impact on security provisioning in urban settings; and thereby draw implications of the increasing private security services provision for the management of urban security. I hypothesize that new private security arrangements have emerged, including non-commercialized, non-formal security mechanisms, and that these arrangements are inevitable at present. Within this milieu explaining the increase in private security actors in Kampala; examining non-formal, non-market private security mechanisms developed in Kampala’s slum areas, and how these impact on urban security provisioning; and understanding the role of the state and the Uganda Police Force (UPF) in the management of urban security alongside these private interventions are herein attempted. Non-formal, non-market security measures are only loosely and informally institutionalized: they are based an individual or small-group basis, with limited, if any, transactions involved. Data were acquired through group discussions and in-depth interviews with deliberately selected private security actors, UPF personnel, security and Local Government personnel; and residents of slum areas; observations of physical security-enhancing structures on the one hand and security-threatening behaviors and structures on the other; and critical review of secondary sources and related literature. This case study is a reflection on Kampala to make tentative conclusions about other cities in the region. Content analysis was used: themes and sub-themes were developed along the study objectives, with subsequent data analysis along the themes/sub-themes. The study discovered that informal and non-market security interventions at the individual and group levels account for a significant constituent of urban safety and security in Kampala. True, both state and commercialized security providers exist. But these do not serve the whole city, and especially the urban poor in slum areas. The private security actions and behaviors of slum dwellers do not fit the category of commercialization. It is concluded that various security mechanisms exist in Kampala’s slum areas, with UPF backing people’s own arrangements. The study recommends that government needs to combat the increasing urban crime to improve on urban security, to support and encourage the ‘security begins with you’ ethos; and address urban infrastructure challenges limiting effective security by police. More studies are needed to bolster our understanding of urban security. Details: Santiago de Chile: The Global Consortium on Security Transformation (GCST), 2011. 30p. Source: Internet Resource: New Voices Series, No. 12: Accessed April 4, 2011 at: http://www.securitytransformation.org/images/publicaciones/201_New_Voices_Series_12_-_Neither_Formal_nor_Marketized.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Uganda URL: http://www.securitytransformation.org/images/publicaciones/201_New_Voices_Series_12_-_Neither_Formal_nor_Marketized.pdf Shelf Number: 121241 Keywords: Neighborhoods and CrimePrivate SecuritySecuritySlumsUrban Areas |
Author: Commins, Stephen Title: Urban Fragility and Security in Africa Summary: Estimates are that more than half of all Africans will live in cities by 2025. This rapid pace of urbanization is creating a new locus of fragility in many African states - as evidenced by the burgeoning slums around many of the continent's urban areas. The accompanying rise in youth unemployment, urban violence, and organized crime pose new challenges with direct implications for the shape and composition of Africa's security sector. Details: Washington, DC: Africa Center for Strategic Studies, 2011. 8p. Source: Internet Resource: Africa Security Brief, No. 12: Accessed April 6, 2011 at: http://africacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ASB-12_Final-for-Web.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Africa URL: http://africacenter.org/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/ASB-12_Final-for-Web.pdf Shelf Number: 121258 Keywords: Organized CrimeSlumsUrban Crime (Africa)Violent CrimeYouth Crime |
Author: Sami, Shafia Title: Youth-Led Survey on the Commercial Sexual Exploitation of Vulnerable Children and Youth in Dhaka Slum Areas: A Youth-Led Study Summary: Bangladesh is a developing third world country with a large population. Most Bangladeshis live under the poverty level. The growing population and lack of livelihood options are becoming increasingly problematic. In rural areas, cultivatable land is being used is being to meet the housing need of the growing population. Natural disasters have caused the loss of lives as well as land, leaving many homeless. A large number of people come to Dhaka every day in search of a better livelihood. Due to lack of education and skills, they work as day laborer in mills or factories, rickshaw pullers, hawkers, drivers, drug smugglers, small businessmen, employees of business centers, etc. The low income received for these occupations is often inadequate to meet the high Dhaka living costs, compelling many to seek accommodation in slum areas. As many countries in the world achieve greater development, children in Bangladesh are struggling for a safe and secure environment to grow and learn. Despite being a signatory to the Convention on the Rights of the Child, many children remain unprotected. Child sexual abuse, sexual exploitation of children, child trafficking, and early marriage occur frequently in the social context of Bangladesh. Though many NGOs work with child victims of sexual abuse, exploitation and trafficking, little research has been undertaken on these issues. It is therefore impossible to determine exactly how many children in Bangladesh have become victims of commercial sexual exploitation. One study indicates, however, that one girl in every three becomes a victim of abuse. Slum areas are particularly difficult places for children to grow up. Children in danger may be reluctant to ask for help in fear that their parents may decide to move away and discontinue their schooling. Incidents of child abuse sometimes take place within families, with children being abused by close relatives. Children in these situations often feel that they cannot disclose the abuse to their parents in fear that they may be blamed themselves, with little or no consequences for the perpetrator. In this context, youth involved in the Youth Partnership Project in Bangladesh conducted a survey of children and young people living in slum areas of Dhaka city to collect information about their vulnerability to CSE, CSA, trafficking and early marriage in the socio-economic context of the slum environment. The survey conducted was both qualitative and quantitative. Participation, teamwork, collaboration, flexibility and triangulation were the key tenets of the approach adopted by the survey team. Methods used for data collection included: (i) individual interviews, (ii) focus group discussions (FGDs), and (iii) case study analysis. Aparajeyo-Bangladesh staff and the youth group members drafted a set of ethical principles to guide the work, along the themes of: (i) participation and protection, (ii) informed consent of the children, (iii) children’s confidentiality and trust, (iv) clarity, and (v) a conducive survey environment. Details: Mohammadpur, Dhaka, Bangladesh: Aparajeyo-Bangladesh, 2010. 66p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 29, 2011 at: http://www.ecpat.net/ei/Publications/CYP/YPP_Research_Bangladesh.pdf Year: 2010 Country: Bangladesh URL: http://www.ecpat.net/ei/Publications/CYP/YPP_Research_Bangladesh.pdf Shelf Number: 121897 Keywords: Child AbuseChild Sexual Exploitation (Bangladesh) Child SexuaChild TraffickingPovertySlums |
Author: Felbab-Brown, Vanda Title: Bringing the State to the Slum: Confronting Organized Crime and Urban Violence in Latin America Lessons for Law Enforcement and Policymakers Summary: Public safety is increasingly determined by crime and security in urban spaces. How the public safety problem in urban spaces is dealt with in the 21st century as urbanization intensifies will determine citizens’ perceptions of the accountability and effectiveness of the state in upholding the social contract between the citizens and the state. Major cities of the world, and the provision of security and order within them, will increasingly play a major role in the 21st century distribution of global power. In many of the world’s major cities, law enforcement and social development have not caught up with the pace of urbanization, and there is a deep and growing bifurcation between developed and reasonably safe sectors of economic growth and social advancement and slums stuck in a trap of poverty, marginalization, and violence. Addressing the violence and lifting the slums from this trap will be among the major challenges for many governments. Aerial view of Venezuela's bigest slum of Petare in Caracas September 1, 2010. There are many forms of urban violence. This article presents some of the key law enforcement and socioeconomic policy lessons from one type of response to urban slums controlled by non-state actors: namely, when the government resorts to physically retaking urban spaces that had been ruled by criminal or insurgent groups and where the state’s presence had been inadequate or sometimes altogether nonexistent. Its focus is on Latin America—specifically Brazil, Mexico, Colombia, and Jamaica; but its findings apply more broadly and are informed by similar dynamics between non-state actors and state policies in places like Karachi, Pakistan, and Johannesburg, South Africa. In response to a crime epidemic afflicting Latin America since the early 1990s, several countries in the region have resorted to using heavily-armed police or military units to physically retake territories controlled de facto by criminal or insurgent groups. After a period of resumed state control, the heavily-armed units hand law enforcement functions in the retaken territories to regular police forces, with the hope that the territories and their populations will remain under the control of the state. To a varying degree, intensity, and consistency, Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, and Jamaica have adopted such policies since 2000. During such operations, governments need to pursue two interrelated objectives: to better establish the state’s physical presence and to realign the allegiance of the population in those areas toward the state and away from the non-state criminal entities. From the perspective of law enforcement, such operations entail several critical decisions: whether or not to announce the force insertion in advance; how to generate local intelligence; and when to hand over law enforcement to regular or community police forces. With respect to announcing the force insertion in advance, the element of surprise and the ability to capture key leaders of the criminal organizations has to be traded off against the ability to minimize civilian casualties and force levels. The latter, however, may allow criminals to hide and escape capture. Governments thus must decide whether they merely seek to displace criminal groups to other areas or maximize their decapitation capacity. Intelligence flows rarely come from the population. Often, rival criminal groups are the best source of intelligence. However, cooperation between the state and such groups that goes beyond using vetted intelligence provided by the groups, such as the government’s tolerance for militias, compromises the rule-of-law integrity of the state and ultimately can eviscerate even public safety gains. Sustaining security after initial clearing operations is, at times, even more challenging than conducting the initial clearing operations. Although unlike the heavily-armed forces, traditional police forces, especially if designed as community police, have the capacity to develop trust by the community and ultimately to focus on crime prevention, developing such trust often takes a long time. To develop the community’s trust, regular police forces need to conduct frequent on-foot patrols with intensive nonthreatening interactions with the population and minimize the use of force. Moreover, sufficiently robust patrol units need to be placed in designated beats for substantial amounts of time, often at least over a year. Ideally, police develop not only local police forces, but community-based and problem-oriented policing as well. Establishing oversight mechanisms, including joint police-citizen boards, further facilitates building community trust in the police. After the disruption of the established criminal order, street crime often significantly rises and both the heavily-armed and community-police units often struggle to contain it. The increase in street crime alienates the population of the retaken territory from the state. Thus, developing a capacity to address street crime is critical. Addressing street crime, especially when through problem-oriented policing approaches, also often tends to be relatively simple and inexpensive. Moreover, preventing at least some street crime through such measures allows police forces to concentrate on more complex street and organized crime. Moreover, community police units tend to be vulnerable (especially initially) to efforts by displaced criminals to reoccupy the cleared territories. Ceding a cleared territory back to criminal groups is extremely costly in terms of losing any established trust of the local population and being able to resurrect it later. Rather than operating on a predetermined handover schedule, a careful assessment of the relative strength of regular police and the criminal groups following clearing operations is likely to be a better guide for timing the handover from heavy forces to regular police units. Cleared territories often experience not only a peace dividend, but also a peace deficit—in the rise new serious crime (in addition to street crime). Newly-valuable land and other previously- inaccessible resources can lead to land speculation and forced displacement; various other forms of new crime can also significantly rise. Community police forces often struggle to cope with such crime, especially as it is frequently linked to legal businesses outside of their area of operation. Such new crime often receives little to no attention in the design of the operations to retake territories from criminal groups. But without developing an effective response to such new crime, the public-safety gains from the clearing operations can be completely lost. Instead of countering the causes of illegal economies and violent organized crime through strengthening effective and accountable state presence, government intervention may only alter the form of criminality and displace existing problems to other areas. Expanding the justice system to cover areas where no courts were previously present usually takes considerable time. As a result, a dispute-resolution vacuum often emerges immediately following the clearing operations. This near-term absence of dispute resolution processes and enforcement is one impetus for the rise of crime and disorder in the post-clearing phase. One of the acute dilemmas encountered by law enforcement forces in the retaken territory and managers of the operation is whether or not, how quickly, and in what form to suppress illegal economies that exist in the retaken territory. There may be several reasons why the state would want to suppress the illegal economy. These include the leakage of illicit flows to other locales, a belief that the profitability of illicit profits will dissuade slum residents from switching to legal economies, and a fear that the persistence of illegal economies will pull in new violence and perpetuate anti-social and anti-state values among the slum residents.However, suppressing local illegal economies in urban spaces comes with significant costs, such as massive drops in household income of slum residents, new alienation of the population from the state, expansion of criminal activity and the rise of extortion, and the dissipation of law enforcement focus. Generating legal alternative livelihoods in urban spaces requires that the economic development strategy addresses all the structural drivers of illegal economic production. Beyond providing for security and the rule of law, such a comprehensive approach requires that stable property rights be established, access to microcredit developed, access to education and health care expanded, and crucial infrastructure deficiencies redressed. Often the most challenging problem for economic development in such situations is to generate sustainable legal jobs. Limited, isolated, discreet interventions, even when responsive to the wishes of the local community, are particularly ineffective in changing socioeconomic dynamics in a marginalized community. They do not have the capacity to alter basic social patterns or generate jobs in the community, and therefore, do not reduce crime. If they amount largely to patronage handouts, they can generate complex negative equilibria between criminal and official political patrons or a crime-pays type of mentality. Saturating an area with money in order to buy the political allegiance of the population produces neither sustainable economic development nor desirable social and political practices. Such massive cash infusions distort the local economy, undermine local administration, and can fuel corruption, new crime (such as extortion and resource theft), and moral hazard. Economic development of marginalized urban spaces is rarely politically neutral. While it does strengthen marginalized communities, it has the potential to undermine established powerbrokers (especially those who straddle the crime world and the official political world) by depriving them of their agent-patron role. Such powerbrokers, therefore, have an interest in hampering and limiting the extent to which the state is extended to the marginalized areas. Coordination across different line-ministries and agencies, and across different levels of government is often difficult to achieve, but failure to achieve good coordination can undermine the entire effort. Details: Washington, DC: Brookings Institute, Latin America Initiative, 2011. 54p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed January 18, 2012 at: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2011/1205_latin_america_slums_felbabbrown/1205_latin_america_slums_felbabbrown.pdf Year: 2011 Country: Central America URL: http://www.brookings.edu/~/media/Files/rc/papers/2011/1205_latin_america_slums_felbabbrown/1205_latin_america_slums_felbabbrown.pdf Shelf Number: 123652 Keywords: Orbanized Crime (Latin America)SlumsSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeUrban AreasViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Prouse, Carolyn Title: Framing the World cUPP: Competing Discourses of Favela Pacification as a Mega-Event Legacy in Brazil Summary: In November of 2010, Brazilian military and police officers rolled through the streets of Complexo de Alemao, Rio de Janeiro's largest favela, in an effort to 'take back' the community from notorious drug traffickers in time for the 2014 FIFA World Cup and the 2016 Summer Olympic Games. Given the pervasive rhetoric that the occupation of favelas by the 'pacifying' Unidade de Policia Pacificadora (UPP) program is for these mega events, what are the effects of this framing, and how is it used and contested by multiple actors? What subjects are called into being as a 'threat' through discourses regarding the UPPs, and how does this rhetoric legitimate violent practices of security by the state? Employing Judith Butler's concepts of framing and the constitutive outside, I argue that there are multiple and competing discourses that frame UPP military police interventions, which have important legacy ramifications for Brazil's mega events. In general, many international popular media accounts highly decontextualize and exoticize the space of the favela, constituting a site of threatening, yet consumable, Otherness. The state tends to construct simplistic dichotomies of space and subjects as threatening in order to legitimate its own actions. However, many favela inhabitants are reframing these constitutions to undermine the state's attempts at legitimation and bring into relief the historical and socio-political continuities of Brazilian militarization. Details: RASAALA, Vol. 3, No. 2 (2012): 17 p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed July 21, 2014: https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/rasaala/article/view/2219/2714 Year: 2012 Country: Brazil URL: https://journal.lib.uoguelph.ca/index.php/rasaala/article/view/2219/2714 Shelf Number: 132723 Keywords: Crowd ControlDrug TraffickingFavelas (Brazil)MilitarizationSlumsSporting Events |
Author: Aleman, Alonso Ayala Title: Urban Upgrading Intervention and Barrio Integration in Caracas, Venezuela Summary: "Spatial segregation is the reflection of social structures onto space". Understood as a negative condition the socio-spatial segregation of urban dwellers as the opposing form to urban integration has become a major hindrance to both functional urban development and the inclusive vision that cities are supposed to foster. This premise forms the underpinning rational to construct this dissertation using the situation of the informal settlements of Caracas, Venezuela, as its subject of analysis. Like in many other Latin American major cities the rapid and unregulated urbanization of Caracas is compounded by social polarization, socio-economic inequalities and urban fragmentation. Inefficient government responses to provide large portions of the urban population with adequate access to housing have resulted in the formation and consolidation of informally-built areas outside the purview of urban regulations. Known in Venezuela as barrios de ranchos, these settlements are the spatial manifestation of urban poverty, social exclusion and precarious urban conditions characterized by poor quality housing, poor access to basic services, insecure property rights, and ambiguous citizenship, all of this contributing to their lack of integration to the surrounding city. The physical and socio-economic integration and inclusion of these urban dwellers represent a tremendous challenge for policymakers, professionals and civil society alike. Particular attention must be devoted to them in order to understand why the situation has evolved into what is today with the purpose of envisioning strategies aimed at integrating them to mainstream urban development. Actions to remedy this situation have fallen under projects and programmes implemented in a piecemeal basis, tackling mostly the physical improvement of these settlements. Such actions, at least in the Venezuelan context, have been many times tainted by political patronage and manipulation. It is argued in this dissertation that an integrated, holistic and multi-disciplinary approach denuded from political patronage is necessary to activate the integration process of these settlements. In this context, urban upgrading interventions have assumed a special significance in the process of spatial and socio-economic integration of barrios. For the purpose of this dissertation a specific upgrading project in one informal settlement in Caracas has been chosen to both explore the meaning of integration and how to actually achieve it by drawing up the lessons derived from the project's planning and implementation process. The project, known as the Caracas Barrio Upgrading Project (CAMEBA), has been undertaken in two major barrio agglomerations of Caracas in an attempt towards devising a humane and integrated barrio renewal policy. The empirical evaluation of CAMEBA is believed to offer valuable insights and positive lessons for future implementation of urban integrationist strategies. The main objective of this dissertation is therefore to explore the meaning of urban integration using the implementation process of project CAMEBA as its subject of research. In order to operationalize the research, the theoretical underpinnings of Polanyi's modes of economic integration were used as the base to construct the analytical model to be tested in the field. The articulation of such model was guided on the other hand by a European research on urban integration known as the URBEX project, which applied Polanyi's model in spatial terms and emphazised the interplay of three functional domains as the key to socio-economic integration, viz. the State's redistributive policies, public reciprocity and the dynamics of market exchange. Even though the theoretical underpinnings of the model were used by the URBEX project in the context of Western cities in Europe, this dissertation attempted to adapt the analytical framework envisaged by this project to the particular situation of the barrios of Caracas. Through this theoretical exercise a number of variables and indicators were developed to measure the degree of socio-economic, political and spatial integration of the barrio intervened by the upgrading project of CAMEBA. The complexity of the issue called for an understanding of the different forces and processes behind the social, economic, political and spatial exclusion of the large portion of the Venezuelan urban dwellers that live in barrios. The exploration thus far points out to the fact that urban upgrading endeavours in informal settlements in the context analysed can only be sustainable and relevant if the community being intervened is able to own the process and become the main stakeholder of the intervention. The study reveals that the process of barrio upgrading must be activated and sustained over a period of time in order to enable barrio inhabitants to realize their much cherished aspirations including the achievement of a sense of socio-economic and political integration and a sustained improvement in the quality of their lives. Quality access to basic and physical infrastructure, socio-political recognition of barrios and fostering of proactive community organizations while enabling their meaningful participation in the barrio upgrading process emerge as the major preconditions for working towards the urban integration of barrios. The analytical model articulated in the study stands out as a useful contribution to the scientific debate regarding urban integration, and it is expected to inform policymakers and urban specialists about possible paths towards the integration of informal settlements Details: Dortmund, Germany: Faculty of Spatial Planning, Dortmund University of Technology, 2008. 243p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed September 9, 2014 at: https://eldorado.tu-dortmund.de Year: 2008 Country: Venezuela URL: https://eldorado.tu-dortmund.de Shelf Number: 133193 Keywords: Barrios (Venezuela)PovertySlumsSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeUrban AreasUrban Development |
Author: Johnson, Christopher M. Title: "We're from the Favela but "We're Not Favelados": The intersection of race, space, and violence in Northeastern Brazil Summary: In Salvador da Bahia's high crime/violence peripheral neighbourhoods, black youth are perceived as criminals levying high social costs as they attempt to acquire employment, enter university, or political processes. Low-income youth must overcome the reality of violence while simultaneously confronting the support, privileged urban classes have for stricter law enforcement and the clandestine acts of death squads. As youth from these neighbourhoods begin to develop more complex identities some search for alternative peer groups, social networks and social programmes that will guide them to constructive life choices while others consign themselves to options that are more readily available in their communities. Fast money and the ability to participate in the global economy beyond 'passive' engagement draws some youth into crime yet the majority choose other paths. Yet, the majority use their own identities to build constructive and positive lives and avoid involvement with gangs and other violent social groups. Drawing from Brazil's racial debates started by Gilberto Freyre, findings from this research suggest that while identity construction around race is ambiguous, specific markers highlight one's identity making it difficult to escape negative associations with criminality and violence. The discourse surrounding social capital suggests that such individuals can rely on it to overcome these problems. However social capital is used more often as a tool to spatially and socially segregate and consolidate power and opportunity among the powerful and well-connected. That race does not contribute significantly to the debate misses key elements in how social relationships develop and are maintained. This research was conducted over the period of ten months in a peripheral neighbourhood in Salvador through a community social development programme. The study used a mixed qualitative methodology that was part ethnographic examining social networks and protective factors that assist young people at risk from becoming involved in crime or violence. Details: London: London School of Economics and Political Science, 2012. 299p. Source: Internet Resource: Dissertation: Accessed May 26, 2016 at: http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/390/ Year: 2012 Country: Brazil URL: http://etheses.lse.ac.uk/390/ Shelf Number: 139161 Keywords: FavelasNeighborhoods and CrimeSlumsSocioeconomics Conditions and CrimeViolenceViolent Crime |
Author: Vandenberg, Layne Title: Police Pacification of Rio de Janeiro Favelas in the Context of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Summary: In 2006, FIFA announced Brazil as the host of the 2014 FIFA World Cup. To heighten security measures for the Cup, the Rio de Janeiro state government created the Unidade de Policia Pacificadora (Police Pacification Unit or UPP) to regain territorial control of poor communities - called favelas - that were governed by criminal groups in the government's absence. The UPPs diverge from traditional policing practices as they utilize proximity policing in favelas to create a more permanent presence with the hope of eliminating drug traffickers and generating trusting relationships with the communities they serve. The implementation of the UPP has failed because UPPs decrees conceptualize the program within existing police structures and rely on the same policing methods used in the past. While the UPPs have successfully fulfilled their goal to reduce some forms of lethal violence in favelas, it has been unsuccessful in establishing positive relationships between residents and police that allow for the complete integration of favelas into Rio de Janeiro society. Despite this imperfect and incomplete integration, favela residents have made their voices heard, thus increasing their participation in civil society and opening a necessary social discourse about police expectations and inequality. I argue that the UPPs, although a short-term strategy, must implement stronger institutional organization and social programming to change policing methods and positively impact the favela communities. Details: Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan, 2015. 69p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 26, 2016 at: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/112118/laynevdb.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2015 Country: Brazil URL: https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/112118/laynevdb.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Shelf Number: 139229 Keywords: FavelasNeighborhoods and CrimePolicingSlumsSporting Events |
Author: Berkmann von der Wehl, Candice Title: The Impact the Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) have on Rio de Janeiro's favelas Summary: Historically, many types of public security reform policy have been tried and implemented in Brazil, ranging from demilitarizing the police; new penal codes; strengthening internal accountability systems, and restructuring police forces; but so far, seemingly the most promising and popular approach has been community oriented policing (COP). Leaving behind the more traditional, militaristic styles of policing that dominate police discourse throughout the region of Latin America, COP is a preventive approach based on the idea that society is the first line of defence against crime and insecurity. It focuses on the causes of crime, which can motivate citizens, to engage in police community partnerships, and it attempts to use crime statistics more effectively. The focal points of this paper, therefore, is to investigate community oriented policing in Brazil, known as Unidade de Policia Pacificadora (UPP), and to critically assess its strengths and weaknesses in the context of urban landscapes of Rio de Janeiro in the 21st Century. The paper will seek to compare public security reform critiques, as well as make an in depth analysis of what factors determine the success or failures of police reform endeavours, particularly, those in El Salvador and Brazil. Theses critiques are centred around short term initiatives that fail to identify the main problems inherent with police in Latin America; the international community's requirements for 'democratic police'; and the states' inability to alter the culture of 'non-questioning military hierarchy. Details: Leiden, NETH: Leiden University, 2016. 29p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed May 27, 2016 at: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/38205/The%20Impact%20the%20Pacifying%20Police%20Units%20have%20on%20Rio%20de%20Janeiro%27s%20favelas.pdf?sequence=1 Year: 2016 Country: Brazil URL: https://openaccess.leidenuniv.nl/bitstream/handle/1887/38205/The%20Impact%20the%20Pacifying%20Police%20Units%20have%20on%20Rio%20de%20Janeiro%27s%20favelas.pdf?sequence=1 Shelf Number: 139233 Keywords: FavelasNeighborhoods and CrimePolicingPublic SecuritySlumsViolent Crime |
Author: Magaloni, Beatriz Title: Killing in the Slums: An Impact Evaluation of Police Reform in Rio de Janeiro Summary: This paper evaluates the causal impact of Rio de Janeiro's Pacifying Police Units (UPPs), probably the largest-scale police reform initiative taking place in the developing world. The main goals of the UPPs were: 1) to regain control of territories previously dominated by armed criminal groups; and 2) to improve security for these communities through reduction of lethal violence. In the course of six years, more than 9,000 police officers were permanently assigned to the UPPs, servicing close to half million residents in the city slums (favelas). We are interested in understanding the process through which governments supply a basic public service - the police - in poor urban neighborhoods that have long been abandoned to the arbitrary rule of non-state armed actors. Moreover, our paper documents Rio de Janeiro's painful trajectory of police violence, illuminating some of it major institutional facilitators. Painstakingly geo-coding homicides and police killings from 2005 to 2013, we provide answers to some of the most critical questions about police use of lethal force, including the determinants of variations in who is targeted by police repression and how different strategies for policing the slums have impacted police killings. To evaluate the UPP impact on lethal violence, we use a variety of causal identification strategies that leverage spatial and temporal variation in the introduction of the UPP as well as geo-referenced data of more than 22,000 incidents of lethal violence. Our empirical models reveal that the UPP had mixed results. The introduction of the UPPs did not play a significant role in reducing murders in the favelas that were pacified. The UPP's failure to reduce homicides imply that the poor in the slums continue to be subject to two or three times higher murder rates than the white middle class. Nonetheless, the UPP is breaking long-held practices of extreme use of police lethal violence. Our empirical results convincingly demonstrate that police killings would have been 60 percent larger without the UPP intervention. Details: Stanford, CA: Stanford University, Center on Democracy, Development and the Rule of Law (CDDRL), 2015. 55p. Source: Internet Resource: CDDRL Working Paper: Accessed June 8, 2016 at: http://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/cddrl_working_paper_dec15_rio.pdf Year: 2015 Country: Brazil URL: http://cddrl.fsi.stanford.edu/sites/default/files/cddrl_working_paper_dec15_rio.pdf Shelf Number: 139326 Keywords: Deadly ForceDrug TraffickingFavelasGang ViolenceHomicidesPacifying Police UnitsPolice ReformPolice Use of ForceSlums |
Author: Nepal, Som Raj Title: From Margins to Mainstream: Through supplementary education and protection to the vulnerable children in slums of Kolkata, India Summary: he study specifically aims to explicate the processes of mainstreaming of life and education of vulnerable children in the marginalized slum community of Kolkata, India through the integrated approach of supplementary education and protection by a local NGO, IPER (Institute of Psychological and Educational Research). It also equally elucidates the methods and network used by IPER for integrated intervention in primary education and protection of vulnerable children, its holistic impact on the respective community and parents, and challenges of mainstreaming at local context. The research followed a qualitative approach with data triangulation methods to ensure validity and veracity. Participant observation, case studies and semi structured interviews were undertaken as primary data collection from the beneficiaries and sub-beneficiaries of IPER projects of education and protection. Relevant secondary data were obtained from internet, published and unpublished official records of the concerned organization, I/NGOs and journals related to the study-subject. The main findings suggest that universalization of education focusing on compulsory elementary education to those who were not benefitted by public schools have had substantially shaped in Kolkata due to NGOs driving initiatives and government-civil society partnership. The protection cum education intervention to those destitute children of slum and street by arranging individual sponsors or own resources under the aegis of IPER has not only helped to mainstream life and education but also brought the gross happiness in parents motivating them for further education of children. However the problems are in millions but the beneficiaries are in hundreds due to limited means and resources of NGOs and government. Moreover the weaknesses in governance in mapping the problem has resulted many difficulties for poor people to have easy access of education in own areas and negligence of public school's management and teachers towards education of children resulted high drop-out-of school children or discontinuity even at primary level. In addition, case studies of three educated and empowered youths of slums included in the report assure that it would be the best intervention in community if it was from the people of same community for which they were ready to take up community awareness and development tasks. Similarly another case study of a rescued domestic child labour shows the practical problems of social workers in the cases when social tradition dominates the existing laws. Details: Helsinki, Finland: Diaconia University of Applied Sciences, 2013. 103p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed October 20, 2016 at: https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/57167 Year: 2013 Country: India URL: https://www.theseus.fi/handle/10024/57167 Shelf Number: 140816 Keywords: At-Risk YouthDelinquency PreventionEducational ProgramsPovertySlums |
Author: Quattri, Maria Title: Child Labour and Education: A survey of slum settlements in Dhaka Summary: Urbanisation has powered Bangladesh’s development. But it has gone hand-in-hand with the rapid growth of urban slums marked by high levels of poverty and low levels of service provision. In these slums, child labour is rife. Child labour and education: a survey of slum settlements in Dhaka presents findings from one of the largest surveys on child work and education conducted in Bangladesh. ODI research found that 15% of 6 to 14-year-old children in Dhaka's slums were out of school and engaged in full-time work. Average working hours for these children were well beyond the 42-hour limit set by national legislation. The garments sector accounted for two thirds of female working children, raising serious concerns over garment exports and child labour. By the age of 14, almost half of children living in the slums of Dhaka were working. The research shows how early exposure to work and withdrawal from education are harmful to children. This report offers recommendations for coordinated, cross-sectoral policies to break the link between child labour, social disadvantage and restricted opportunities for education. Policies must be integrated to span the regulation of labour markets, education, child welfare and wider global strategies for poverty reduction – what we found in Dhaka is a microcosm of a global problem that should be at the centre of the international agenda. Details: London: Overseas Development Institute (ODI), 2016. 80p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed December 16, 2016 at: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11145.pdf Year: 2016 Country: Bangladesh URL: https://www.odi.org/sites/odi.org.uk/files/resource-documents/11145.pdf Shelf Number: 147763 Keywords: Child LaborChild WelfareEducationPovertySlums |
Author: Kamau, Irungu Simon Title: Actors in Environmental Crime in City Slums of Kenya: the Case of Illegal Dumping in Mathare Slum of Nairobi Summary: Mathare slum is currently faced with a serious challenge of illegal dumping of waste. Waste poses a threat to public health and the environment if it is not stored, collected and disposed of properly. The main purpose of the study was therefore to investigate the actors in this illegal activity in the area. The study was guided by several objectives namely; To show the existing forms of waste management in Mathare slum; To identify the key actors in illegal dumping of waste in the area; To examine social and economic factors promoting this illegal activity and finally to determine the views of residents on how waste management should be improved. A survey was conducted, where 120 respondents from the area were issued with questionnaires. Six key informants were interviewed with in-depth interviews. Data was then collected and analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results of the study revealed that 27.2% of households disposed of their waste in gutters, streets, holes and in the nearby river. In addition, 14.9% burned waste outside their houses. Only a small proportion of the population used proper disposal methods. The study also showed that 63.3% of participants who lived near a dump site claimed it to be inefficient, citing that in many cases, it was overfilled and authorities normally delayed in emptying the dump site. It was also discovered that no respondent had received any training on proper waste disposal from the relevant public authority. However, all respondents were aware that illegal dumping of waste could contribute to disease causation. The study concluded that proper education of the public, the provision of communal trash bins, and frequent collection of waste by the municipal could help prevent exposing the residents to diseases in addition to significantly reducing cases of dumping in the area. Finally, the study recommends a further research to be carried out in other slums possibly in other counties to find out if the same results can be obtained. Details: Nairobi: University of Nairobi, 2016. 86p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed January 27, 2017 at: http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/99782/Irungu_Actors%20in%20Environmental%20Crime%20in%20City%20Slums%20of%20Kenya%3b%20the%20Case%20of%20Illegal%20Dumping%20in%20Mathare%20Slum%20of%20Nairobi.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y Year: 2016 Country: Kenya URL: http://erepository.uonbi.ac.ke/bitstream/handle/11295/99782/Irungu_Actors%20in%20Environmental%20Crime%20in%20City%20Slums%20of%20Kenya%3b%20the%20Case%20of%20Illegal%20Dumping%20in%20Mathare%20Slum%20of%20Nairobi.pdf?sequenc Shelf Number: 144926 Keywords: Environmental CrimeIllegal DumpingSlums |
Author: Peixoto, Betania Totino Title: Preventing Criminality: An Economic Evaluation of a Brazilian Program Summary: In this work we carried out an economic evaluation of Fica Vivo program in its pilot area, Morro das Pedras slum. Fica Vivo is the main program of prevention and control of criminality that is being carried in Brazil. This program was based on the CeaseFire Project proposed by the School of Public Health of the University of Illinois - Chicago in the nineties and that inspired several programs in other countries. The principal objective of the program is the reduction of homicides in areas of hot spots. Regarding homicides, in general, in Brazil, these hot spots occur in slums. The program combines preventive with repressive (police/ judicial) activities. This evaluation is done considering the pilot area of the program, Morro das Pedras slum, situated in Belo Horizonte city, Brazil. The impact of the program is estimated using a Double Difference Matching method applied to a panel data of police records between 2000 and 2006. The impact variable is the half-yearly homicide rate per one hundred thousand inhabitants. The costs were accounted based on accountability information sourced by the Social Defense Secretary and the State Police. The results show that the program reduces criminality, diminishing the homicide rate. Details: Unpublished paper, 2008. 27o, Source: Internet Resource: Accessed February 13, 2017 at: http://www.cedlas-er.org/sites/default/files/aux_files/peixoto.pdf Year: 2008 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.cedlas-er.org/sites/default/files/aux_files/peixoto.pdf Shelf Number: 147296 Keywords: Cost-Benefit AnalysisCrime AnalysisHomicidesHot SpotsSlumsSpatial AnalysisViolent Crime |
Author: Mastrigt, Jody van Title: CCTV Beyond Surveillance: Implications Towards Police Legitimacy of the UPP in the favela Rocinha Summary: This thesis aims to show the impact of the CCTV cameras installed by the Pacification Project on the police legitimacy of the UPP in Rio de Janeiro’s favela, Rocinha. By conducting fieldwork in Rocinha and using the theoretical framework of modern police legitimacy theory, this paper examined the performances of the cameras as perceived by the residents to understand its impact on the UPP police legitimacy. This thesis argued that CCTV as a technological tool used by the police has had a negative impact on the police legitimacy in Rocinha. In addition, the thesis also examined the use of smart phones to monitor the police by the residents in Rocinha. To further interpret its impact on the favela, the analytical concept sousveillance has been used to examine the empirical data. The engagement of the residents monitoring the police has also shown to have a negative impact on the legitimacy of the police in Rocinha. Details: Utrecht, NL: Utrecht University, 2016. 37p. Source: Internet Resource: Thesis: Accessed February 28, 2017 at: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/338218 Year: 2016 Country: Brazil URL: https://dspace.library.uu.nl/handle/1874/338218 Shelf Number: 141230 Keywords: CCTVFavelaPolice LegitimacyPolice SurveillancePolice-Citizen InteractionsSlums |
Author: Kejerfors, Johan Title: Parenting in Urban Slum Areas: Families with Children in a Shantytown of Rio de Janeiro Summary: This is a study of parenting and child development in a slum area in a developing part of the world. The aims of the study were threefold. The first aim was to explore the physical and social contexts for parenting in a shantytown in Rio de Janeiro using an ecological perspective. The second aim was to examine parenting and subsequent child outcomes among a sample of families living in the shantytown. The third aim was to explore what factors contribute to differences among parents in how they nurture and protect their children. The theoretical framework of the study was an updated version of Bronfenbrenner's bioecological model of human development. Using self-report questionnaires developed by Rohner, data on perceived parental acceptance-rejection were collected from 72 families with adolescents 12-14 years old, representing approx. 75% of all households with children in this age group in the shantytown. Besides self-report questionnaires, each adolescent's main caregiver replied to several standardized questionnaires developed by Garbarino et al., eliciting demographic and social- situational data about the family, neighborhood, and wider community. The results of the study paint a complex portrait of the social living conditions of the parents and children. Despite many difficulties, most parents seemed to raise their children with loving care. The results from the self-report questionnaires indicate that the majority of the adolescents perceived substantial parental acceptance. The adolescents' experience of greater or lesser parental acceptance-rejection seems to influence their emotional and behavioral functioning; it also seems to be related to their school attendance. Much of the variation in degree of perceived acceptance-rejection seems to be related both to characteristics of the individual adolescents and their main caregiver(s) and to influences from the social and environmental context in which they and their caregivers interact and live their lives. Details: Stockholm: Stockholm University Department of Social Work, 2007. 246p. Source: Internet Resource: Studies in International Social Work, 1651-0291 ; 7Accessed April 21, 2017 at: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:197529/FULLTEXT01.pdf Year: 2007 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.diva-portal.org/smash/get/diva2:197529/FULLTEXT01.pdf Shelf Number: 145066 Keywords: At-Risk YouthParentingPovertySlumsSocioeconomic Conditions |
Author: Musoi, Kyalo Title: A Study of Crime in Urban Slums in Kenya: The Case of Kibra, Bondeni, Manyatta and Mishomoroni Slums Summary: Crime continues to be a major scar on the peace and security landscape in Kenya. Whereas crime cuts across the country geographically, it is more prevalent, severe and acute in peri-urban informal settlement areas that are popularly known as slums. Security Research and Information Centre (SRIC), with support from the Government of Kenya (through the National Steering Committee on Peace Building and Conflict Management and the Kenya National Focal Point on Small Arms and Light Weapons) and UNDP Kenya has been conducting crime surveys - in its strategic role as a crime observatory - since 2011 in the greater Nairobi region and other select parts of the country. These crime surveys have consistently established that crime is a major peace and security concern in the major urban areas in the country particularly in the slums. It is against this backdrop that SRIC undertook a study on crime in four select slums in the four major cities in the country namely, Kibra (Nairobi), Mishomoroni (Mombasa), Manyatta (Kisumu) and Bondeni (Nakuru). For the purpose of this study, crime is understood to mean acts or prohibitions which are against the law (both written and unwritten for the case of societal norms). The main objective of the study was to contribute to better understanding of the nature, trends and dynamics of crimes in the four select major urban slums in Kenya and to formulate actionable policy recommendations. The study also sought to identify and analyse crime hot spots, criminal organized groups and impact of crime in the select slum areas. The findings of the study can thus be extrapolated to present a general crime status in the slum areas in the country as a whole. Various methods of data collection and analysis were used. Secondary data was mainly derived from previous studies and reports on crime and crime observatories including print media. Primary data was collected through questionnaires, interviews and observations. A total of 654 questionnaires were administered to members of the public in the study areas taking into consideration age and gender sensitivities. In addition, 48 key informant interviews were conducted. The researchers also spend considerable time during the study period in the study areas observing crime trends and patterns. The study used both quantitative and qualitative methods of data analysis. The quantitative data was organized, cleaned, coded and analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) to help generate summaries in terms of tables and graphs for easy analysis and interpretation. Qualitative data was analyzed qualitatively through interpretation of the responses by respondents and also analysis of secondary data on the subject matter. The study found that theft (35.37%), was the main type of crime across the four sampled slum areas. In addition, robbery (15.55%), burglary/break-ins (10.67%) and mugging (23.17%) were the other main typologies of crime in slum areas, accounting for combined 84.76% of crimes committed in slum areas in Kenya. The study also established that an overwhelming majority, 98.8% of the respondents, had witnessed crime being committed in the last three months of the study period. This can be inferred to mean that almost everyone in the four slums had either been affected (may be within the family) or personally experienced some form of crime. Asked to state causes of crime in slum areas in urban centres, 61.2% of the respondents cited youth unemployment as the main cause of crime. Poverty (11.3%) and illicit brews/drug abuse (9.5%) were cited as the other causes of crime in slum areas. Based on these statistics, it can be inferred that rampant poverty and depressed income levels seem to be the primary drivers of localized crimes in major urban slums in Kenya. Contrary to assertions by many researchers and reports that Kibra is the most unsafe area to live in, public perceptions on safety in this study demonstrate that comparatively, Bondeni slum in Nakuru town was the most unsafe place to live in (60.98%) followed by Mishomoroni in Mombasa (44.44%). Kibra was third with 40% and lastly Manyatta slum in Kisumu where only 36.9% of respondents felt the slum was unsafe to live in. Moreover, it was only in Manyatta slums that respondents felt very safe (7.14%), making it to be, in relative terms, the safest of the four slums. In terms of reporting crime to the authorities the study established that 53.21% of the respondents had reported crime to the police while 46.79% of the respondents did not report crime to the police at all. 42.2% of the respondents indicated that they had no confidence in administration of justice by the Police Service and that's why they would rather let the matter (crime) "die" than seek intervention from the police. 14.7% of the respondents indicated that they were afraid of the perpetrators, 18.7% indicated that sometimes they would not report any crime incident perpetrated or involving any member of the family/ friends, 9.2% indicated that some criminal cases were not serious enough to warrant the attention of the police, 7.3% posited that the police were not friendly and were thus afraid of approaching them while others indicated reporting was inconsequential since the police were incapable of recovering lost properties in cases of property related crimes. In addition and despite the efforts expended by the government, NGOs and the communities themselves to prevent and reduce crime in urban slum areas in the country, a majority of respondents (81%) felt that crime incidences remained high. Only 17% of the total respondents indicated that crime levels had reduced. The study also identified 21 organized criminal groups and or gangs operating in the slum areas. Kibra had 6, Mishomoroni in Mombasa 8, Bondeni of Nakuru 8 whereas Manyatta respondents in Kisumu identified 4 such groups. Extortions, levying of protection fees, muggings, heckling/disrupting political rallies and events, trafficking drugs and kidnappings are some of the common crimes committed by these identified criminal groups/gangs. It is also important to note that in Mishomoroni, Mombasa Republican Council (MRC) was not identified as a criminal organization or group. Maybe the respondents feared mentioning it or perceived it as a legitimate organization pursuing interests of the coastal people. In addition, the study identified 44 crime hotspots and times of the day the crime is likely to take place or committed. Kibra, had the highest number of hotspots at 17. This was followed by Mishomoroni (11), Manyatta (9) and Bondeni (7) in that order. It is interesting to note that based on public perceptions, Bondeni - with only 7 identified crime hotspots - was found to be the most unsafe slum amongst the four sampled slum areas. To ameliorate the dire crime situation in slum areas in the country, the study makes key policy recommendations to the National Police Service, National Government, County Governments and the members of the public. To the Police Service, the police reforms should be hastened so that corruption is reduced and accountability enhanced. In addition, the police should intensify patrols within the settlements, strengthen witness/informers protection services/ unit and equip the police officers with the necessary tools to enable them perform their work effectively. The National Government should address youth unemployment by increasing the uptake of grants such as Uwezo Fund and also ensure proper mechanisms are put in place, including subsidizing the prices of basic commodities, in order to lower the cost of living. On the other hand, the County Governments should improve infrastructure in slum areas such as erecting lighting masts and improving access roads. The public has a role to play in making slum areas safer places to live in. They should step up collaboration with police officers in detecting and reporting crime as well as avoid buying or trading in stolen properties. Buying stolen goods encourages the criminals to continue stealing. Details: Nairobi: Security Research & Information Centre, 2014. 72p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed June 5, 2017 at: http://www.srickenya.org/images/publications/slum%20Crime%20Survey%20Report.%20Thur.pdf Year: 2014 Country: Kenya URL: http://www.srickenya.org/images/publications/slum%20Crime%20Survey%20Report.%20Thur.pdf Shelf Number: 145909 Keywords: Crime StatisticsPovertySlumsSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeStolen GoodsTheftUrban Areas and Crime |
Author: Turley, Ruth Title: Slum upgrading strategies and their effects on health and socio-economic outcomes: a systematic review Summary: Low and middle income countries (LMIC) are home to over 90% of the one billion people living in slums. Urban slums describe parts of cities where living conditions are exceptionally poor. The slums lack basic services and often have many people crowded into small living spaces. Slums can provide shelter and proximity to jobs, and communities are often social and supportive. However, poor living conditions and health are closely related, and illnesses such as diarrhoea, malaria, cholera and respiratory diseases are common. Slum upgrading basically involves improving the physical environment, for example the water supply, sanitation, waste collection, electricity, drainage, road paving and street lighting. Additional strategies may be included to improve access to health, education and social services, increase residents' income and secure legal rights to the land. We found five main studies with suitable methods for examining the effect of slum upgrading on health, quality of life and social wellbeing (for example poverty). Nine supporting studies were also included, which used methods that could indicate associations between interventions and outcomes but could not assess whether interventions caused the effect. Only one main study had a low risk of bias, with the rest having a mixed or high risk of bias. The majority of supporting studies had a high risk of bias, meaning their methods had several limitations that made the study results unreliable. In addition, the studies measured different interventions and outcomes, making it difficult to compare results. Overall, there was limited but consistent evidence to suggest that slum upgrading may reduce diarrhoea in slum dwellers and their water-related expenses. There were mixed results for whether slum upgrading reduced parasitic infections, general measures of communicable diseases, financial poverty and unemployment outcomes. There was very little information on other health or social outcomes, or which types of interventions were most beneficial. Some of the studies asked slum dwellers for their views and their experiences of slum upgrading interventions. They suggested a number of reasons why facilities were not used as intended and which may have reduced the benefits. Future research, with improved study designs and common outcome measures, is needed to determine how best to improve the conditions of existing slums and to offer the most benefit to the health, quality of life and social wellbeing of slum dwellers. Details: London: International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), 2013. 184p. Source: Internet Resource: 3ie Systematic Review 13. Accessed June 29, 2017 at: http://www.3ieimpact.org/media/filer_public/2016/07/12/sr13-slum-upgrading-strategies-review.pdf Year: 2013 Country: International URL: http://www.3ieimpact.org/media/filer_public/2016/07/12/sr13-slum-upgrading-strategies-review.pdf Shelf Number: 146468 Keywords: PovertySlumsSocioeconomic Conditions and CrimeUrban Areas and Crime |
Author: Zaluar, Alba Title: Youth, drug traffic and hyper-masculinity in Rio de Janeiro Summary: I began my ethnographic studies of violence in the city of Rio de Janeiro almost by chance when I went to Cidade de Deus, a low-income housing estate project built in the 1960s for those forcibly evicted from the shantytowns. My intention in 1980 was to study voluntary associations, which were typical of the long existing shantytowns, to see what had changed for the dwellers reinstalled in the new housing project. One major change I found was a new kind of organization of which there had been no record in the literature on poverty prior to 1980: drug dealing gangs engaged in incipient turf wars. Since then, I have not been able to stop studying the subject and willy-nilly became an "expert" on it. I undertook two major ethnographic research projects in Cidade de Deus; one by myself and the second with four research assistants, three of them male and one female. All were university students who had grown up and continued to live in Cidade de Deus. The first study focused on the meanings of poverty, neighbourhood associations and local politics; the second focused on youth involved with the gangs or were about to join them. Later in the 1990s, with a different team, we investigated styles of drug dealing and consumption in three other districts of the city. Three years ago, a series of interviews and focus groups with former dealers allowed us to deepen our knowledge of the dynamics of the unlawful trade as well as the ideas and mixed feelings of the main actors. All these studies were based on participant observation and interviewing techniques. Details: Vibrant (Florianopolis), v. 7: 7-27, 2010. 21p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 7, 2017 at: http://www.vibrant.org.br/downloads/v7n2_zaluar.p Year: 2010 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.vibrant.org.br/downloads/v7n2_zaluar.p Shelf Number: 147599 Keywords: Drug TraffickingMasculinityPovertySlumsYouth Gangs |
Author: Zaluar, Alba Title: The Paradoxes of Democratization and Violence in Brazil Summary: My studies of urban violence in Brazil showed two paradoxes and one enigma that have developed in this country during the last decades. The paradox of a process of democratisation that started in 1984 coming forward with increasing criminality rates, especially homicide, which increased three times in Rio de Janeiro during the 1980s, decreasing and stabilizing in the 1990s, and tripled in Sao Paulo from 1980 to 1995. The paradox of a nation constituted on the idea of cordiality and conciliation that changed recently its dominant ideas, criticized systematically as they were by Brazilian intellectuals. Finally, the enigma of a fierce violence among men, mainly young men (perpetrators and victims of murder at the same time), and has affected women comparatively much less. Young men commit homicides over other young men in 92% of the homicide cases for the past twenty years. This suggests a model of violence dissimilar to the model present in ethnic conflicts where women are object of rape. To understand them, I have used three dimensions: the institutional inertia that explains persisting civil rights violations and the malfunctioning of the justice system; the importance and limits of macro social explanations for violent criminality, such as poverty and social exclusion; the necessary look at micro social processes concerning changes of power at neighbourhood level and the situation of young poor men in drug trafficking. This implies taking subjective formations as well as long institutional and social processes as a way of understanding institutional violence against the poor, as well as social violence between poor youths in a state and a society not entirely ruled by law. Since in countries like Brazil there have always been a gap between formal civil rights and real ones, one must focus not only the letter of law but mainly social processes not controlled by it, such as inexplicit informal rules or social practices ingrained in the actors' actions, including and mainly policemen daily practices. Details: Presented at a conference, 2004. 24p. Source: Internet Resource: Accessed October 7, 2017 at: http://www.brasiluniaoeuropeia.ufrj.br/en/pdfs/the_paradoxes_of_democratization_and_violence_in_brazil.pdf Year: 2004 Country: Brazil URL: http://www.brasiluniaoeuropeia.ufrj.br/en/pdfs/the_paradoxes_of_democratization_and_violence_in_brazil.pdf Shelf Number: 147600 Keywords: Drug Trafficking Poverty SlumsSocio-economic Conditions and Crime Urban Areas and Crime Violence |
Author: Gentilini, Ugo Title: Entering the City: Emerging Evidence and Practices with Safety Nets in Urban Areas Summary: Most safety net programs in low and middle-income countries have hitherto been conceived for rural areas. Yet as the global urban population increases and poverty urbanizes, it becomes of utmost importance to understand how to make safety nets work in urban settings. This paper discusses the process of urbanization, the peculiar features of urban poverty, and emerging experiences with urban safety net programs in dozens of countries. It does so by reviewing multidisciplinary literature, examining household survey data, and presenting a compilation of case studies from a 'first generation' of programs. The paper finds that urban areas pose fundamentally different sets of opportunities and challenges for social protection, and that safety net programs are at the very beginning of a process of urban adaptation. The mixed-performance and preliminary nature of the experiences suggest to put a premium on learning and evidence-generation. This might include revisiting some key design choices and better connecting safety nets to spatial, economic and social services agendas compelling to urban areas. Details: Washington, DC: World Bank Group, 2015. 190p. Source: Internet Resource: Social Protection & Labor Discussion Paper no. 1504: Accessed October 7, 2017 at: http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/5841448382581833/Entering-the-City-Emerging-Evidence-and-Practices-with-Safety-Nets-in-Urban-Areas.pdf Year: 2015 Country: International URL: http://pubdocs.worldbank.org/en/5841448382581833/Entering-the-City-Emerging-Evidence-and-Practices-with-Safety-Nets-in-Urban-Areas.pdf Shelf Number: 147607 Keywords: PovertyPublic SafetySlumsUrban Areas and Crime |