PROTECTING COMMUNITIES Responding to the Impact of Urban Drug Markets
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RESEARCH REPORT PROTECTING COMMUNITIES Responding to the impact of urban drug markets WALTER KEMP JULY 2020 PROTECTING COMMUNITIES Responding to the impact of urban drug markets W Walter Kemp July 2020 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study draws on inputs from the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime’s various projects, experts, and networks. In particular, it is based on data, inter- views, and information collected by Inge Helena Lilia Valencia Peña, Tariq Khosa, Jameel Junejo, Rukshana Parker, David Danelo and Juan Albarracín Dierolf who shared their time and insights with us during the research and writing. We would like to thank them for their valuable contributions and their constructive engagement throughout the process. Special thanks also to Mark Shaw, Kristina Amerhauser, Ruggero Scaturro and the Global Initiative’s publications team. This publication was produced with the financial support of the Global Partnership on Drug Policies and Development (GPDPD) implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ). We would like to thank our partners in GIZ who steered us substantively through the report. The contents, however, are the sole responsi- bility of The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime and do not necessarily reflect the views of GIZ. ABOUT THE AUTHOR Walter Kemp is Senior Fellow at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime (GI-TOC) and directs the Civil Society Observatory to Counter Organized Crime in South Eastern Europe. Previously he was held a number of senior positions in the Organization for Security and Cooperation and Cooperation in Europe, was vice president of the International Peace Institute, and spokesman and speechwriter at the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. He has written extensively on conflict prevention, the relationship between crime and conflict, as well as European security issues. © 2020 Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without permission in writing from the Global Initiative. Cover: Aerial view of Rocinha, Rio de Janeiro © Donatas Dabravolskas Cartography: Paulina Rosol-Barrass Illustration: Nina Simone Wilsmann, Claudio Landi, Paulina Rosol-Barrass Please direct inquiries to: The Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime Avenue de France 23 Geneva, CH-1202 Switzerland www.globalinitiative.net CONTENTS Executive summary ...............................................................................................................................................1 Introduction ...............................................................................................................................................................4 An urban millennium.............................................................................................................................................7 Characteristics of vulnerability...................................................................................................................10 Geography ..............................................................................................................................................................11 Homicide rates ......................................................................................................................................................11 Infrastructure ........................................................................................................................................................12 Marginalization .....................................................................................................................................................12 Demography ..........................................................................................................................................................14 Global flows and local hotspots .................................................................................................................17 A market for protection in an architecture of fear ........................................................................22 Clusters of crime ..................................................................................................................................................27 Mano dura: Hammer without the dance .........................................................................................................30 Effective responses ............................................................................................................................................33 Assessing the situation .......................................................................................................................................34 Violence-reduction strategies ...........................................................................................................................36 ‘Curing’ violence ...................................................................................................................................................37 Enhancing social resilience ................................................................................................................................37 Urban upgrading ...................................................................................................................................................38 Focus on youth .....................................................................................................................................................40 Involving the private sector ...............................................................................................................................41 Harm reduction .....................................................................................................................................................41 Inter-city networks ..............................................................................................................................................42 Mediation ...............................................................................................................................................................42 Security and service providers .........................................................................................................................43 Deploying technology .........................................................................................................................................43 Alternative development ....................................................................................................................................44 Anti-viral therapy for crime in the city ..................................................................................................48 Notes .......................................................................................................................................................................50 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY here are no simple solutions to dealing with the complexity of urban drug markets. Therefore, it is necessary to bring together a wide variety of Texper tise from various backgrounds to compare and learn from different experiences and approaches. This report is inspired by the desire to break down silos between experts working on alternative development, urban security, drugs and crime in order to build more peaceful and sustainable communities. The report combines a granular local analysis of hotspots – carried out by researchers of the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime (GI- TOC) – in vulnerable neighbourhoods of six cities across four continents with a broader discussion on lessons learned from dealing with organized crime in urban environments. It looks at characteristics of vulnerability in urban drug markets, and explains how they are the result both of local factors (such as homicide rates, the urban landscape, marginalization, poverty and demography), and global ones (such as trafficking routes). Linking back to the title of the report, a section is devoted to competing markets for protection between state and non-state actors, which too often results in extortion and violence rather than increasing safety. In a novel approach, the report shows how the term ‘urban drug markets’ can be broken down into at least five parts: excluded drug markets (on the margins of society); affluent drug markets; bulk supply (for the local market as well as transit); urban production; and locations that are controlled by organized crime. These different parts of the market, as well as links between them, need to be better understood if we are to address the problem effectively. The second half of the report looks at effective responses to dealing with urban drug markets. It suggests a three-pronged approach: to promote sustainable communities and safer cities; sustainable or alternative development; and drug Westside, Chicago: schoolchildren use a designated Safe Passage route. The Safe Passage programme was started after concerns about children’s safety as they cross gang territories on their way to school. © Scott Olson/Getty Images 1 Failure to understand and crime prevention and control. These approaches are interlinked, partic- and deal with urban ularly around the main avenues of Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 on sustainable cities and