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 Missouri model of Juvenile Justice is credited with a great turn around on how to work with juvenile corrections. It is also considered less expensive and is noted for low rates of recidivism inspiring similar initiatives across the US. Comunidad Segura interviewed Mark Steward, the man who played a key role in that change over 20 years.
The article brings up the experience of a young Colombian who lives in a comuna (slum), reporting his experience with drugs, use of firearms and the power hierarchy in the armed groups.
Pandillas, or gangs, are growing in the United States and Europe, a very real option in the lives of disillusioned immigrant youths. Mexico's Juan Carlos
Narváez focuses on the transnational experience in his book "Ruta
transnacional: a San Salvador por los Ángeles".
The third article of Exit Bulletin shows that the personal history of young Colombians at risk is intimately related to the organized armed violence, as well as the government programs to reduce it.
The article is a fantastic report of the situation of girls and young women in at risk situations. Family breakdown, drug and alcohol abuse, prostitution and 'machismo' (male chauvinism) in society makes this report the synthesis of the phenomenon lived by girls and young women.
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.
It took a long while to arrive in Rio de Janeiro, but in half a dozen years it has become an inescapable reality in the lives of the city’s most vulnerable residents: its homeless. A recent survey estimates that approximately 90% of the children and youths sleeping rough and living on Rio’s sidewalks use crack, the cocaine derivative that is easy to use, low cost and quick to act, having irrevocably replaced glue.
This article reflects on the mechanisms of integration and social control (family, school, work, police, and detention centers) for adolescents and young criminals coming to commit crimes, searching for an analysis of the structural factors with the subjectivity of the offenders.
This article tells the story of a young Haitian who was sent by his mother to the Dominican Republic in order not to engage in armed violence. However, he returned to his country of origin after not adapting to the new environment. Back to Haiti, he got involved with the banda in his area, being arrested and promising his mother that he would get rehabilitated.
The third article of Exit Bulletin shows that the personal history of young Colombians at risk is intimately related to the organized armed violence, as well as the government programs to reduce it.
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.
