Health and Society

The 'Security Trap' in Latin America: Using the State to Fight Violence with Violence

By Kristen Martinez-Gugerli
February 21, 2019

Latin America and the Caribbean is considered to be the most violent region in the world. Despite widespread gains in education, poverty reduction, and living standards, Latin American countries continue to have disproportionately high rates of violent crime. Some may find this puzzling, since many of these countries have particularly powerful military and police forces. This then raises the question: Why haven't new policing strategies in the region had any impact? Is Latin America in a 'Security Trap'?

Rise in Gang Violence in Fortaleza Brazil

By Rachel Bierly
February 18, 2019

In the North-Eastern coastal region of Brazil, the state of Ceará has experienced a massive surge in violence, particularly gang violence. Gang violence has increased in the region over the past few years in a region that once had much less gang activity as compared to other cities in Brazil. The capital city, Fortaleza, has seen the most extreme rise in violence as it is the closest large port in Brazil to Europe and Africa, and is therefore a target for some of Brazil’s most notorious gangs to secure control over Brazil’s drug trade (Kaiser, 2019).

Latin America lags behind in obstetric justice

By Rachel Rozak
January 30, 2019

Whenever reports of misogyny hit the front page, it is likely that readers first think of discrimination in the workplace or, in its form that yields the most tragic results, femicide.  Of course, Latin America is far from absent of femicide; Guatemala is the country with the third highest rate of femicide on the planet. Between 2014 and 2016, there were 2,264 violent deaths of women in the country, and of those, 611 cases were reported as femicide (Johnson 2018).

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