Latin America and the Caribbean is in the midst of a crime epidemic. With 43 of the world's 50 most murderous cities and a homicide rate four times the global average, it is being battered on an epic scale. Crime and the fear of it affect each of us every day: it changes investment decisions, the allocation of private and public resources and even when and where we go. Crime … [Read more...] about When Poor Crime Statistics Feed an Epidemic
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Slavery, Inequality and Crime
In 1851, two years before the official abolition of slavery in New Granada (now Colombia), authorities there conducted a census that was to provide the 19th century's most accurate picture of the slaveholding economy. This was a snapshot of sugar, cotton, and tobacco plantations, gold mines and numerous slaves. Today, in a testimony to the lingering effects of slavery, that … [Read more...] about Slavery, Inequality and Crime
Research Opportunity: Call for Visiting Scholars Program
The IDB’s Research Department invites promising young researchers (post-doctorate level) and recognized accredited Scholars to apply for the Visiting Research Scholars Program on Citizen Security and Justice issues. The program addresses the growing demand for expertise to design public policies to prevent and reduce urban crime in Latin America and the Caribbean, and to … [Read more...] about Research Opportunity: Call for Visiting Scholars Program
Crime, Inequality and the Rio Olympics
Before and during the Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, two different visions of the city emerged, at least partly from portraits in the foreign press. There was a glamorous Rio with its well-to-do sports fans, elegant neighborhoods and nightclubbers fired up by Samba and caipirinhas. And there was a Rio of the slums or favelas, with their poverty, drug gangs and killings. To be … [Read more...] about Crime, Inequality and the Rio Olympics
Tackling Crime and Pollution Together
Crime represents a major concern for Latin Americans. Increasingly, so does pollution. It is unusual, though, to consider relationships and tradeoffs between them. Yet these are precisely the issues explored by Visiting Scholar Paul Carrillo and his George Washington University colleagues Arun Malik and Andrea López in a recent study for the IDB. The authors took as their case … [Read more...] about Tackling Crime and Pollution Together