Criminal Violence, Security, and Poverty

Latin America is home to 41 of the 50 most dangerous cities in the world. As the world urbanizes, more poor are living in cities. Without improved governance, rising criminal violence will impact the poor disproportionately. This project seeks to build capacity at Stanford to study criminal violence in developing countries, its causes and consequences, and practical solutions for increasing security: develop a research infrastructure; develop an international crime network as a resource for studies of criminal violence and its effects on the poor; innovate the design and implementation of a field research methodologies curriculum; bring together scholars and practitioners to share findings. Our work will produce new concepts and methodologies to shed light on the dynamics of criminal violence and arrive at practical solutions for protecting the poor. The work of this project will complement and strengthen Stanford’s leadership position in the area of civil war and ethnic violence.