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The Myth of Personal Security: Criminal Gangs, Dispute Resolution, and Identity in Rio de Janeiro's Favelas

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2018

Enrique Desmond Arias  and
Corinne Davis Rodrigues
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Abstract

This article examines the politics of how drug traffickers resolve disputes and maintain order in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. Much popular discourse and some scholarly studies argue that drug traffickers play a major role in controlling crime and minimizing conflicts there. This article shows that traffickers enforce community norms under a variable political calculus in which well-connected and respected residents are less likely to be punished for rule violations than are individuals who are marginal to the life of the community. This allows many favela residents who conform to local norms to feel a degree of control over their own safety, a “myth of personal security” in otherwise violent neighborhoods.

Type
Research Article
Information
Latin American Politics and Society , Volume 48 , Issue 4 , Winter 2006 , pp. 53 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © University of Miami 2006

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