More than money, what attracts young people to the drug trade is guns.
They see guns as a way to get girls and to come out of invisibility.
These are the some of recent findings of the CESeC study, “Meninos do
Rio” that went directly to the shantytowns and poorer areas of Rio de
Janeiro and changed a few long-standing misconceptions.
The strategy today to tackle high re-offending rates among young offenders in the United States, is to find ways to reduce their exposure to prison. Corrections institutions are crowded and expensive, and increasingly, it makes more sense to keep youths close to home.
Violence against children as a practice within families is hidden behind a "wall of silence" according to a UN study from 2006. Three years later, the wall begins to be torn down. Research by the Promundo Institute suggests that the physical and humiliating punishment is common among Brazilian families.
Soccer often meant the outbreak of violence among youth gangs in Lima’s district of El Augustino, in Peru. But over the past 12 years, along with a restorative justice program, soccer laid the foundations for ending that violence. How did the game change?
Venezuela's youth brigade teaches boys, girls and teens in violence prevention, security and citizenship. In five years it has graduated 700 youths, and registered a drop in 99% of disturbances.
After seven years of success in Brazil, the youth violence prevention initiative "Fight for Peace" is being replicated in the United Kingdom. “We will work with youth one to one, we want success inside and outside the ring." says founder and director Luke Dowdney.
Researchers went out to meet and interview families in Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela and Brazil to find out whether children are heard in family matters. The results are not encouraging, first, parents need to be active citizens themselves. In those families that do, the result is higher self-esteem and more respect for others.
Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador, Nicaragua and Costa Rica: home to youth gangs widely known as maras and pandillas. A new comparative study offers important new data, after surveying over 3000 members of Central American societies.
It took filmmaker Maria Augusta Ramos two years to prepare "Juízo", a movie about juvenile justice in Rio de Janeiro, depicting the real stories of youths in conflict with the law and how they enter the justice system.
In Brazil's Minas Gerais state, the Fica Vivo! project obtains significant results in lowering homicide rates. Coordinating violence prevention and repression, it is considered a success.
The strategy today to tackle high re-offending rates among young offenders in the United States, is to find ways to reduce their exposure to prison. Corrections institutions are crowded and expensive, and increasingly, it makes more sense to keep youths close to home.
