Filling the Void? Organized Crime and COVID-19 in Rio De Janeiro

Bruce, Raphael; Cavgias, Alexsandros; Meloni, Luis

doi:10.2139/ssrn.3678840

Cited by 3 publications

(2 citation statements)

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“…By contrast, COVID-19-related deaths have been higher in neighborhoods controlled by paramilitary groups. Bruce et al ( 2020 ) interpret their results in light of the fact that militias’ profits are likely more affected by restriction orders, while drug gangs’ profits depend little on the income of the population living in the areas under their control. Hence, the opportunity cost of implementing social-distance measures has been higher for militias than for drug gangs.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In terms of geo-political focus, most studies concentrated on Latin American countries; while only an analysis considers a different area: the Western Balkans. Bruce et al (2020) examine how different forms of territorial control have been enforced by drug trafficking gangs and paramilitary groups during the COVID-19 epidemic in the city of Rio de Janeiro. Their results indicate that neighborhoods with a strong presence of drug gangs have had fewer casualties attributable to COVID-19 than have neighborhoods where the government has de facto control.…”

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

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COVID-19 and Organized Crime: Strategies employed by criminal groups to increase their profits and power in the first months of the pandemic

et al. 2021

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The COVID-19 pandemic has created new opportunities for organized criminal groups and confronted them with new challenges. Analysis of how these groups have reacted to the pandemic yields better understanding of how they work and enables the devising of more effective counter-strategies. To this end, we identified illustrative cases regarding the provision of illegal governance and infiltration of the legal economy by conducting a systematic content analysis of international media articles and institutional reports published during the first eight months after the outbreak of the pandemic (January to August 2020). These cases were further analyzed in order to cluster the behavior of criminal groups in response to the COVID-19 emergency, and the means by which they tried to exploit the pandemic to strengthen their political and economic power. We found that different governance-type criminal groups proposed themselves as institutions able to mitigate the burdens imposed by the pandemic by providing support to people in need and enforcing social-distancing measures. Further, identified cases did not provide evidence of groups devoted to the provision of illicit services and goods assuming any governance role. In this respect, the available evidence supports previous knowledge about organized crime. Cases of misappropriation of public funds and organized crime infiltration of the legal economy seem less common, at least in the first phase of the pandemic. The wholesale distribution of pharmaceuticals and medicines has been the sector targeted the most.

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Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%