Abstract
This chapter, expanding on the previous one, looks at the violence characteristics of the zones around core cities, which we call periurban areas because they represent the urban-rural interface and because they typically provide few if any urban services. Many of these areas are violence crucibles, or areas where the causes of violence, violent outcomes, and violence consequences are so intertwined that they cannot be separated cleanly. We use the term “favela” generically, to refer to the large periurban populations ringing core cities globally. To assist in understanding these areas, we consider the variables poverty, income inequality, rapidity of growth, population density, age structure, rural-to-urban migration, and competition for limited resources, particularly land-grabbing practices. Urban gangs are presented as a measure of state power. Illicit markets, under the immediate control of local gangs and more distant control of organized crime syndicates, are discussed for their plasticity, which refers to their ability to relocate rapidly in changing environmental conditions. Because urban government and businesses are tied to physical structures, they are much more economically at risk to sea-rise and other global warming hazards than are illicit organized crime. Moreover, organized crime is rapidly globalizing, already consuming about 10% of the global gross product. As aspects of the urban physical environment deteriorates in conditions of global warming, illicit organized crime looks poised to take increasingly large shares of the legal marketplace and to outcompete municipal police for the provision of security.
Published Version
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