Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro

“Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro provides new insights based on original research on criminal and community networks in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. As cities in Brazil confront organized gangs of drug dealers who are better funded and better armed than the state — and protected by their connections — the urban poor are trapped in multiple layers of vulnerability, as Arias so richly demonstrates.” — Janice E. Perlman, President of The Mega-Cities Project and author of the forthcoming Marginality from Myth to Reality in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: 1969–2005

“Arias spent years shuttling between three different favela communities in Rio at considerable personal risk. As a result, his book is wonderfully rich in insight, observation, and detail, and it goes right to the institutional heart of the problem. I have no doubt that it will be required reading for anyone interested in violence in Brazil and the rest of Latin America.” — Robert Gay, Connecticut College

“A refreshing antidote to the earnest but misleading dichotomies of much official discourse. . . . Arias adds a distinctive voice . . . in terms of his subject matter, theoretical perspective, and methods.” — Journal of Latin American Studies

“A path-breaking book that will change the way we understand Rio de Janeiro and other cities plagued by the territorial control of violent criminal networks.” — The Americas

“Arias is to be applauded for his courageous and sustained research in very difficult locations, and for his evident humanity and concern for the residents of the favelas.” — British Journal of Criminology

“This book is a major contribution to the scholarly discussion on urban violence in Latin America.” — Latin Americanist

“Accessibly written and tightly argued, this book should reorient social science and policy debates on its topic, and will find wide adoption across a range of courses.” — CHOICE

“A remarkably-researched political ethnography of social violence in the hyper-violent drug-infested world of Brazilian favelas. . . . Intrepid and sophisticated.” — Qualitative Sociology