Crime costs Latin America 3 percent of its annual GDP

People see insecurity as a bigger problem than the state of the economy, write Laura Jaitman and Stephen Machi

Does tougher sentencing deter crime? Evidence from the London 2011 riots suggests it does

After the 2011 London riots, large numbers of rioters were convicted and given much harsher sentences than for people convicted of the same kinds of crimes before the riots occurred. Did the tougher sentencing have a deterrent effect on crime? Laura Jaitman and Stephen Machin analyse the potential effect on crime of the severe sanctions that were enacted. Their results show a significant drop in crime. However, they also find that non-riot crimes actually went in the opposite direction increasing slightly, suggesting a rational response from criminals who look to have substituted away from the types of crimes that received tougher sentences to those that did not

Crime and immigration: new evidence from England and Wales

We study a high profile public policy question on immigration, namely the link between crime and immigration, presenting new evidence from England and Wales in the 2000s. For studying immigration impacts, this period is of considerable interest as the composition of migration to the UK altered dramatically with the accession of Eastern European countries (the A8) to the European Union in 2004. As we show, this has important implications for ensuring a causal impact of immigration can be identified. When we are able to implement a credible research design with statistical power, we find no evidence of an average causal impact of immigration on crime, nor do we when we consider A8 and Non-A8 immigration separately. We also study London by itself as the immigration changes over time in the capital city were large. Again, we find no causal impact of immigration on crime from our spatial econometric analysis and also present evidence from unique data on arrests of natives and immigrants in London which shows no immigrant differences in the likelihood of being arrested

Crime Concentration and Hot Spot Dynamics in Latin America

Latin America and the Caribbean is the most violent region in the world, with an annual homicide rate of more than 20 per 100,000 population and with an increasing trend. Yet most evidence of crime concentration, geo-temporal patterns, and event dependence comes from cities in high-income countries. Understanding crime patterns in the region and how they compare to those in high-income countries is of first-order importance to formulate crime reduction policies. This paper is the first to analyze crime patterns of cities in five Latin American countries. Using micro-geographic units of analysis, the paper finds, first, that crime in Latin America is highly concentrated in a small proportion of blocks: 50 percent of crimes are concentrated in 3 to 7.5 percent of street segments, and 25 percent of crimes are concentrated in 0.5 to 2.9 percent of street segments. This validates Weisburd's "law of crime concentration at place" (Weisburd, 2105). These figures are fairly constant over time but sensitive to major police reforms. The second finding is that hot spots of crime are not always persistent. Crime is constantly prevalent in certain areas, but in other areas hot spots either appear or disappear, suggesting a possible rational adaptation from criminals to police actions that cause crime displacement in the medium run to other areas. Finally, the paper finds a significant pattern of repeated crime victimization in location and time for property crimes. There are striking similarities with the developed world in crime concentration, although crime levels are much higher and usually increasing. There are also some differences in terms of the persistence of hot spots that pose interesting policy implications and avenues for future research

Entre seguridad humana y estatal: ¿ofrece la Unión Europea una respuesta coherente a los desafíos de seguridad en Centroamérica, Colombia y Venezuela?

Centroamérica, Colombia y Venezuela enfrentan importantes desafíos de seguridad. Pese al discurso de seguridad humana en su política hacia América Latina, la Unión Europea (UE) ha tenido aproximaciones diferentes a los tres conflictos: desde el nexo seguridad-desarrollo en Centroamérica y un compromiso de cooperación combinado con la “securitización” del conflicto en Colombia, hasta una política de sanciones y diplomacia en Venezuela. Metodología: mediante una perspectiva comparada y un marco analítico común de análisis de contenido cualitativo, el artículo plantea la pregunta: ¿qué concepto de seguridad, estatal o humana, está detrás de las políticas de la UE hacia estos países y con qué grado de coherencia se implementa? Conclusiones: se demuestra que la UE hace un manejo poco coherente del nexo seguridad-desarrollo hacia los países seleccionados debido a inconsistencias internas y externas, en este caso sobre todo de cara a EE. UU. como principal donante de la región y “socio” transatlántico. Originalidad: el artículo deconstruye la imagen de la UE como socio de desarrollo comprometido con la seguridad humana. Aunque la política de la UE sigue estando más enfocada en afrontar las causas como la desigualdad y la pobreza que las consecuencias de la inseguridad, la política del nexo seguridad-desarrollo refleja una cierta securitización del desarrollo a la hora de cooperar con países en conflicto y Estados frágiles considerados potenciales “amenazas” a la seguridad, como Colombia o Venezuela

Urban infrastructure in Latin America and the Caribbean: Public policy priorities

Latin America and the Caribbean is the most urbanized region in the developing world. Its urbanization rate of almost 80 % is comparable to that of high-income countries. However, cities in the region are struggling to provide the infrastructure needed for their millions of residents to enjoy a decent quality of life. This paper focuses on analyzing three aspects of this challenge. First, it identifies the main problems in housing and transport infrastructure in the region. Second, it examines the effect of past interventions to improve the living standards of the urban poor. And third, it analyzes the relationship between housing supply and transport networks, two connected topics that shape the region's spatial urban patterns

Frontiers in the economics of crime: Lessons for Latin America and the Caribbean

Crime and violence generate many distortions in the allocation of private and public resources and engender economic and social costs that hinder development. In Latin America and the Caribbean, which is the most violent region on earth, the costs of crime represent at least 3.5% of the regional gross domestic product, twice as much as in developed countries. Despite the magnitude of the security problem, the region is lagging in the production of rigorous research on crime and the application of evidence-based policies to fight and deter crime. This paper uses the crime economics framework to shed light on the main drivers of crime and proposes avenues for future research and action in the region to reduce crime and its social and economic costs

Evaluación de impacto del programa Traz.ar en la provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina: Reprte Final

En el presente documento se analiza el programa TRAZ.AR que tuvo lugar en la Provincia de Santa Fe, Argentina entre 2004 y 2006. El programa tuvo como principales beneficiarios a productores rurales de pequeña/mediana escala dedicados a la ganadería, que se nuclearon en PROGAN, una cooperativa. El programa en resumidas cuentas consistió en el desarrollo de un software que permite el almacenamiento y administración de la información relativa al desplazamiento de los animales. La trazabilidad, no sólo permite mejorar la eficiencia y administración en la actividad ganadera, sino también constituye un requisito para exportar carne a nichos de alto valor, como la Unión Europea.

Evaluation of Slum Upgrading Programs: Literature Review and Methodological Approaches

This technical note analyzes the methodologies used to evaluate neighborhood upgrading programs, describes their results, and suggests approaches for future evaluations. Local and central governments are increasingly utilizing slum or neighborhood upgrading programs to deal with the multiple problems of urban poverty. These programs employ a methodology of integral interventions, combining of both infrastructure works and social services targeted to specific neighborhoods. Due to this variety of interventions the assessment of their impact is complicated and requires a comprehensive approach. This document analyzes the methods used in the evaluation of a number of upgrading programs either looking at individual interventions or their combined outcomes. It proposes a methodological approach for their assessment based on three categories of outcomes: housing, neighborhood, and individual. For each type of outcome, the authors present a literature review of common interventions and their evaluation results. The document also suggests relevant indicators for evaluating slum upgrading programs according to these three types of outcomes, and finally, it presents methodological issues to take into consideration when designing the evaluations of integral programs.

Impact Evaluation of the Traz.ar Program in Sante Fe, Argentina: Case Study

TRAZAR program (from traceability in English) is a very successful example of the application of ICT methods in rural areas to increase the efficiency and potentialities of small/medium-scale cattle farmers. This program took place in Santa Fe province, Argentina, between 2004 and 2006 and consisted of using ICT to track the production cycle of cow herds. TRAZAR is a software that stores all the information related to the identified animals and can be accessed and managed through the internet by its users. The project involved developing the software, promoting the system in workshops and finally applying it to the beneficiaries that auto-selected to the program.