By Robert Muggah First of two posts on urbanism and violence The sheer pace and scale of urbanization is precipitating one of the most dramatic demographic shifts in human history. More than half of the world’s population now resides in cities. At least 500 cities have populations greater than one million, including over 28 megacities with ten million or more inhabitants. … [Read more...] about The dangers of urban fragility
Rio de Janeiro
Whither Rio de Janeiro’s Police Pacification Units?
By Robson Rodrigues Rio de Janeiro’s Pacification Police Units (UPP) are celebrating their fifth year in 2013. They do so with generally positive approval ratings from the media and society as a whole. A recent study by Instituto Data Favela indicates that 75% of favelas inhabitants approve of the UPPs. Notwithstanding major crises and criticism, the UPP constitute the … [Read more...] about Whither Rio de Janeiro’s Police Pacification Units?
Four steps to use the public health model to curb crime
By John Carnochan The first of two blog posts In 2004-2005, we had 132 homicides in Scotland and violence, by Western European standards, was high. What did we do? In 2004 we established the Violence Reduction Unit (VRU), a police unit that uses the public health model to develop and apply effective violence reduction tactics, working with education, health, government, … [Read more...] about Four steps to use the public health model to curb crime