Taking an ethnographic approach to understanding urban violence,
Enrique Desmond Arias examines the ongoing problems of crime and
police corruption that have led to widespread misery and human
rights violations in many of Latin America's new democracies.
Employing participant observation and interview research in three
favelas (shantytowns) in Rio de Janeiro over a nine-year period,
Arias closely considers the social interactions and criminal
networks that are at the heart of the challenges to democratic
governance in urban Brazil.
Much of the violence is the result of highly organized, politically
connected drug dealers feeding off of the global cocaine market.
Rising crime prompts repressive police tactics, and corruption runs
deep in state structures. The rich move to walled communities, and
the poor are caught between the criminals and often corrupt
officials. Arias argues that public policy change is not enough to
stop the vicious cycle of crime and corruption. The challenge, he
suggests, is to build new social networks committed to controlling
violence locally. Arias also offers comparative insights that apply
this analysis to other cities in Brazil and throughout Latin
America.