중남미

Violence in Latin America generates heavy economic, social and political costs for individuals, communities and societies. A particularly pernicious effect of violence is that it undermines citizen confidence in democracy and in their own government. Responding to public fear, politicians across the region have hastily adopted a wide range of policy responses to violence, ranging from militarizing public security, to ‘mano dura’ crack downs, to negotiating truces with organized crime, to decriminalizing illicit economic activity. This policy brief examines how violence clusters within a country – Brazil – to study how public policies affect homicide rates and how these policies might be further tailored geographically to have greater impact.