E D Arias
Biographic Data
| ID | 20156 |
|---|---|
| NAME | E D Arias |
| GIVEN NAMES | E D |
| FAMILY NAME | Arias |
| SIGNATURE | ARIAS E D |
| AFFILIATIONS | The Graduate Center, CUNY |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5924-8751 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 26 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 249 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 25 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2004 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 8 |
Illicit value chains, market challenges, and non-state armed governance in Colombia
From gang member to counterinsurgent to family man
What effect do civil conflict and political violence have on the life of gang members and leaders and how does the experience of gang membership affect the practices of civil conflict? This essay examines the life history of Alejandro, a long-term gang member and criminal who rose to high levels of paramilitary leadership in Colombia over the course of 30 years engaged in varied violent enterprises. We argue that while challenging life circumstan…
Clare Anderson, A Global History of Convicts and Penal Colonies
The implications of illicit networks for changes in anti-narcotics policies
Crime and Punishment in Latin America
This essay reviews the following works:The Anti-Black City: Police Terror and Black Urban Life in Brazil. By Jaime Amparo Alves. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 2018. Pp. 324. $30.30 paperback. ISBN 9786556920610
Social Responses to Criminal Governance in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Kingston, and Medellín
Over the past generation Latin America has experienced high levels of criminal violence associated with extortion, the drug trade, and other criminal rackets. While there has been considerable research into the role of state policy in controlling criminal violence, there has been considerably less investment in analyzing the success of social action to control both police and criminal violence in the high-conflict zones where criminal groups oper…
Advocacy, Misdirection, Protest, and Exit
This essay examines how the inhabitants of Putumayo, a department of Colombia both divided and held together by licit and illicit authority structures and markets, engage with varied political orders as they advance individual and collective economic and political projects. Putumayo's inhabitants adopt four basic strategies to maintain their often illicit livelihoods amid state repression. The first is intellectual resistance, wherein they develo…
How Criminals Govern in Latin America and the Caribbean
Across the region, criminal organizations collude with the state, maintain local political order, and help nominate and elect politicians
Violent Democracies in Latin America
Violence and territorial order in Caracas, Venezuela
Social disorganisation and neighbourhood effects in Latin America
This chapter concentrates heavily on social disorganisation theory, which argues that social stresses, such as high levels of poverty and social marginalisation, produce higher levels of crime. It explores comparative research in three large urban areas: Bogota, capital of Colombia; Lima, capital of Peru; and Santiago, capital of Chile. Bogota and Lima suffer markedly higher levels of violent crime than Santiago. The chapter focuses particularly …
Criminal organizations and the policymaking process
What role do criminal organisations play in policymaking? Evidence presented in this paper from Latin America and the Caribbean points to the complex ways that various types of criminal groups influence the policy process. Based on the structure of the criminal organisation and the relationship between these groups and state officials this article illustrates the different types of dynamics criminal groups contribute to the policy process. In som…
Criminal Enterprises and Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean
This book examines security in three cities that suffer from chronic violence: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Medellin, Colombia; and Kingston, Jamaica. In each, democratic states contend with subnational armed groups that dominate territory and play important roles in politics even as they contribute to fear and insecurity. Through a nested three-city six-neighborhood analysis of the role of criminal groups in governance, this research provides a deep …
Crime and plural orders in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
For the past generation scholars have written about violence, crime, and conflict in Rio de Janeiro's favelas. While this scholarship has developed an extensive understanding of the problem of violence and criminal control of the city's favelas it has not yet effectively engaged in a discussion of the implications of differential types of crime creating local security orders. Building on research in two different city regions in Rio de Janeiro, t…
Violence, Citizenship, and Religion in a Rio de Janeiro Favela
Across Latin America armed groups have come to dominate large sectors of social, political, and economic activity in poor and working-class communities. While scholars have noted the importance of religion in offering individuals and communities protection from violence, there has been relatively little study of the place of religion in contemporary armed activity in the region. This paper looks at the role of religion in the governance practices…
The Impacts of Differential Armed Dominance of Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Reassessing community-oriented policing in Latin America
Understanding the Fica Vivo programme
This paper analyzes the efficacy of the Fica Vivo homicide control programme in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Our data shows that the programme encountered significant success in reducing homicides, as a result of its innovative two-tiered structure in which community-oriented policing units operated in conjunction with state-administered social programmes led by civil servants at each of the programme sites. These efforts helped to build local capacit…
Community Policing and Latin America's Citizen Security Crisis
Over the past two decades, violent crime has reached record levels throughout the developing world. In Latin America, where a 41 percent rise in homicides in the 1990s has made it the world's deadliest region,1 citizen security has become a major priority in national polls and has contributed to the collapse of five elected governments since 2000. 2 In response, states have pursued a variety of reforms, ranging from new penal codes to restructure…
Robert Gay, Lucia
After Life
Trouble en Route
The Dynamics of Criminal Governance
Academic analyses of crime and policing in Latin America have generally focused on the failure of state institutions to guarantee a rule of law. This study, however, argues that the persistently high levels of violence in Rio's favelas [shantytowns] result not from the failure of institutions but, rather, from networks that bring criminals together with civic leaders, politicians, and police. These contacts protect traffickers from state repressi…
The Myth of Personal Security
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 punish…
Blackness Without Ethnicity
The Dynamics of Criminal Governance
Academic analyses of crime and policing in Latin America have generally focused on the failure of state institutions to guarantee a rule of law. This study, however, argues that the persistently high levels of violence in Rio's favelas [shantytowns] result not from the failure of institutions but, rather, from networks that bring criminals together with civic leaders, politicians, and police. These contacts protect traffickers from state repressi…
Crime and plural orders in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
For the past generation scholars have written about violence, crime, and conflict in Rio de Janeiro's favelas. While this scholarship has developed an extensive understanding of the problem of violence and criminal control of the city's favelas it has not yet effectively engaged in a discussion of the implications of differential types of crime creating local security orders. Building on research in two different city regions in Rio de Janeiro, t…
The Impacts of Differential Armed Dominance of Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Community Policing and Latin America's Citizen Security Crisis
Over the past two decades, violent crime has reached record levels throughout the developing world. In Latin America, where a 41 percent rise in homicides in the 1990s has made it the world's deadliest region,1 citizen security has become a major priority in national polls and has contributed to the collapse of five elected governments since 2000. 2 In response, states have pursued a variety of reforms, ranging from new penal codes to restructure…
The Myth of Personal Security
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 punish…
Reassessing community-oriented policing in Latin America
Trouble en Route
Faith in Our Neighbors
After nearly 20 years of democratization, residents of Rio's favelas suffer high levels of civil and human rights abuse at the hands of both police and drug traffickers. The government is generally unable to guarantee the political order necessary to protect the rights of residents in these communities. Existing theories of democratization and advocacy networks offer little to explain how the types of endemic violence that affect poor neighborhoo…
Social Responses to Criminal Governance in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Kingston, and Medellín
Over the past generation Latin America has experienced high levels of criminal violence associated with extortion, the drug trade, and other criminal rackets. While there has been considerable research into the role of state policy in controlling criminal violence, there has been considerably less investment in analyzing the success of social action to control both police and criminal violence in the high-conflict zones where criminal groups oper…
Violence and territorial order in Caracas, Venezuela
Criminal organizations and the policymaking process
What role do criminal organisations play in policymaking? Evidence presented in this paper from Latin America and the Caribbean points to the complex ways that various types of criminal groups influence the policy process. Based on the structure of the criminal organisation and the relationship between these groups and state officials this article illustrates the different types of dynamics criminal groups contribute to the policy process. In som…
Understanding the Fica Vivo programme
This paper analyzes the efficacy of the Fica Vivo homicide control programme in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Our data shows that the programme encountered significant success in reducing homicides, as a result of its innovative two-tiered structure in which community-oriented policing units operated in conjunction with state-administered social programmes led by civil servants at each of the programme sites. These efforts helped to build local capacit…
Advocacy, Misdirection, Protest, and Exit
This essay examines how the inhabitants of Putumayo, a department of Colombia both divided and held together by licit and illicit authority structures and markets, engage with varied political orders as they advance individual and collective economic and political projects. Putumayo's inhabitants adopt four basic strategies to maintain their often illicit livelihoods amid state repression. The first is intellectual resistance, wherein they develo…
Blackness Without Ethnicity
Faith in Our Neighbors
After nearly 20 years of democratization, residents of Rio's favelas suffer high levels of civil and human rights abuse at the hands of both police and drug traffickers. The government is generally unable to guarantee the political order necessary to protect the rights of residents in these communities. Existing theories of democratization and advocacy networks offer little to explain how the types of endemic violence that affect poor neighborhoo…
Robert Gay, Lucia
After Life
Trouble en Route
The Dynamics of Criminal Governance
Academic analyses of crime and policing in Latin America have generally focused on the failure of state institutions to guarantee a rule of law. This study, however, argues that the persistently high levels of violence in Rio's favelas [shantytowns] result not from the failure of institutions but, rather, from networks that bring criminals together with civic leaders, politicians, and police. These contacts protect traffickers from state repressi…
The Myth of Personal Security
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 punish…
Community Policing and Latin America's Citizen Security Crisis
Over the past two decades, violent crime has reached record levels throughout the developing world. In Latin America, where a 41 percent rise in homicides in the 1990s has made it the world's deadliest region,1 citizen security has become a major priority in national polls and has contributed to the collapse of five elected governments since 2000. 2 In response, states have pursued a variety of reforms, ranging from new penal codes to restructure…
Reassessing community-oriented policing in Latin America
Understanding the Fica Vivo programme
This paper analyzes the efficacy of the Fica Vivo homicide control programme in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Our data shows that the programme encountered significant success in reducing homicides, as a result of its innovative two-tiered structure in which community-oriented policing units operated in conjunction with state-administered social programmes led by civil servants at each of the programme sites. These efforts helped to build local capacit…
The Impacts of Differential Armed Dominance of Politics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
Violence, Citizenship, and Religion in a Rio de Janeiro Favela
Across Latin America armed groups have come to dominate large sectors of social, political, and economic activity in poor and working-class communities. While scholars have noted the importance of religion in offering individuals and communities protection from violence, there has been relatively little study of the place of religion in contemporary armed activity in the region. This paper looks at the role of religion in the governance practices…
Criminal Enterprises and Governance in Latin America and the Caribbean
This book examines security in three cities that suffer from chronic violence: Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; Medellin, Colombia; and Kingston, Jamaica. In each, democratic states contend with subnational armed groups that dominate territory and play important roles in politics even as they contribute to fear and insecurity. Through a nested three-city six-neighborhood analysis of the role of criminal groups in governance, this research provides a deep …
Crime and plural orders in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
For the past generation scholars have written about violence, crime, and conflict in Rio de Janeiro's favelas. While this scholarship has developed an extensive understanding of the problem of violence and criminal control of the city's favelas it has not yet effectively engaged in a discussion of the implications of differential types of crime creating local security orders. Building on research in two different city regions in Rio de Janeiro, t…
Social disorganisation and neighbourhood effects in Latin America
This chapter concentrates heavily on social disorganisation theory, which argues that social stresses, such as high levels of poverty and social marginalisation, produce higher levels of crime. It explores comparative research in three large urban areas: Bogota, capital of Colombia; Lima, capital of Peru; and Santiago, capital of Chile. Bogota and Lima suffer markedly higher levels of violent crime than Santiago. The chapter focuses particularly …
Criminal organizations and the policymaking process
What role do criminal organisations play in policymaking? Evidence presented in this paper from Latin America and the Caribbean points to the complex ways that various types of criminal groups influence the policy process. Based on the structure of the criminal organisation and the relationship between these groups and state officials this article illustrates the different types of dynamics criminal groups contribute to the policy process. In som…
How Criminals Govern in Latin America and the Caribbean
Across the region, criminal organizations collude with the state, maintain local political order, and help nominate and elect politicians
Violent Democracies in Latin America
Violence and territorial order in Caracas, Venezuela
Social Responses to Criminal Governance in Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Kingston, and Medellín
Over the past generation Latin America has experienced high levels of criminal violence associated with extortion, the drug trade, and other criminal rackets. While there has been considerable research into the role of state policy in controlling criminal violence, there has been considerably less investment in analyzing the success of social action to control both police and criminal violence in the high-conflict zones where criminal groups oper…
Advocacy, Misdirection, Protest, and Exit
This essay examines how the inhabitants of Putumayo, a department of Colombia both divided and held together by licit and illicit authority structures and markets, engage with varied political orders as they advance individual and collective economic and political projects. Putumayo's inhabitants adopt four basic strategies to maintain their often illicit livelihoods amid state repression. The first is intellectual resistance, wherein they develo…
Clare Anderson, A Global History of Convicts and Penal Colonies
The implications of illicit networks for changes in anti-narcotics policies
Crime and Punishment in Latin America
This essay reviews the following works:The Anti-Black City: Police Terror and Black Urban Life in Brazil. By Jaime Amparo Alves. Minneapolis: University of Minneapolis Press, 2018. Pp. 324. $30.30 paperback. ISBN 9786556920610
From gang member to counterinsurgent to family man
What effect do civil conflict and political violence have on the life of gang members and leaders and how does the experience of gang membership affect the practices of civil conflict? This essay examines the life history of Alejandro, a long-term gang member and criminal who rose to high levels of paramilitary leadership in Colombia over the course of 30 years engaged in varied violent enterprises. We argue that while challenging life circumstan…
Sociology (24 works) · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance (21 works) · Political science (20 works) · Law (19 works) · Criminology (17 works) · Politics (16 works) · Latin Americans (13 works) · Crime Patterns and Interventions (10 works) · Political economy (10 works) · Economics (9 works)