By Juan Corredor-Garcia, PhD student in political science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York
The study of organized criminal groups and its relationship with the state and society used to be an exclusive field of inquiry for sociologists and criminologists. The ground-breaking work of Enrique Desmond Arias, however, inaugurated a rich subfield in the discipline that has inspired scholars around the world to study the political motivations, functions, and rules in which organized criminal groups operate. Studying those groups from a political perspective is imperative for several reasons. In Latin America and the Caribbean, criminal organizations are strong actors capable to provide order, governance, and control, as much and more that the state itself. Additionally, conservative estimates reflect that at least 100 million people under some form of criminal governance not only in the Western Hemisphere (Uribe et al 2022) but also globally (Lessing 2020). Furthermore, while Latin America has only 9% of the population, it is home of one third of the homicides around the world. Overlooking the role that these actors play in their communities they operate, therefore, depicts an incomplete picture of how politics function in the region.
The last conceptual and empirical effort to understand this puzzle is the book Inside Criminalized Governance. How and Why Gangs Rule the Streets of Rio de Janeiro (Cambridge University Press, 2025), by Nicholas Barnes, Lecturer (Assistant Professor) at the University of St Andrews in Scotland. Criminalized governance, according to Barnes, refers to the structures and practices through which gangs control territory and manage relations with local populations. A remarkable argument that the author makes is the fact that this is a criminalized mode of governance because the state serves as arbiter determining who is considered criminal and what acts are under the umbrella of “crime”. Therefore, rather than criminal governance, Barnes argues, what we currently have is criminalized governance. Contrary to common assumptions, these arrangements go beyond the mere use of violence and other predatory behavior as it involves criminal groups implementing regimes of order, dispute adjudication, welfare provision, and distribution of benefits.
As it names suggests, the book provides meaningful insights from the “inside”. In doing his dissertation, the author spent eighteen months living in Complexo da Maré, a complex of fifteen favelas in Rio de Janeiro where three notorious gangs operate: Comando Vermelho of Nova Holanda, Comando Vermelho Parque União, and Terceiro Comando Puro. Drawing from a total of three years of fieldwork and participatory observation, Barnes offers several innovative arguments to better understand how governance works in the favelas. According to Barnes, there are two different but inseparable dimensions of criminalized governance representing “carrots and stick”: 1) coercion (high/low) and 2) provision of benefits (responsive/unresponsive). The first dimension relies on three primary coercive practices: physical presence, punishment, and surveillance. The second dimension demonstrates a more “benevolent face” of the gangs, including activities intended to legitimize the criminal organization in the eyes of local residents, encourage civilians to remain silent through the lei de silêncio (the law of silence), and gain support from some dwellers. Both dimensions produce four ideal types of regime governance: Social Bandit, Benevolent Dictator, Tyrant, and Laissez-Faire.
Another key theoretical and empirical finding of the book relates to the degree of the security environments. Gangs adopt different types and level of support needed from local residents in function of the threats that gangs are exposed from other gangs, rivals, and the police. Finally, a key contribution is the idea that gangs, similar to other armed groups, are also political authorities. Several reasons explain the political nature of gangs: ranging from the monopoly of violence in the favelas, the establishment of political orders with clear rules and customs, the control of territories in urban settings, the exercise of power and authority vis-à-vis other competitors, the diverse arrangements between gangs, communities, and state officials, and the like.
Inside Criminalized Governance is a terrific example of effectively addressing and filling a gap that characterized the field for decades in political science. In doing so, the book offers a refreshing, stimulating read for why gangs, instead of being considered as apolitical organization with deviant subjects, should be considered as agents capable of exercising political roles. The book ultimately demonstrates why gangs are not aberrations of marginalized communities but rather central actors of the function of politics, order, and control.
About the Author
Juan Corredor-Garcia is a PhD student in political science at the Graduate Center, City University of New York. He is currently a Fulbright/Minciencias scholar. He studies the intersection between rebel and criminal governance in Latin America from a civilian resistance perspective, as well as the politics of green militarization in South America.
Find him on twitter at @thuandavid10