SWJ El Centro Book Review – Inside Criminalized Governance: How and Why Gangs Rule the Streets of Rio de Janeiro
Nicholas Barnes, Inside Criminalized Governance: How and Why Gangs Rule the Streets of Rio de Janeiro. Cambridge University Press, 2025. [ISBN: 978-1-009-06994-6, Paperback, 359 pages]
The connection between gangs and community is an important topic in criminology and is essential to better understanding how criminals embed themselves into different spaces. Scholars like John P. Sullivan have explored how criminal insurgencies exploit areas of weak governance to establish parallel or dual sovereignty.[1] Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker have also done interesting work on the different generations of gangs and their subsequent evolution and sophistication.[2][3] Barnes continues this vital work by exploring the connection between gangs and the community in Rio de Janeiro, which he refers to as criminalized governance. He seeks to explain the origins, evolution, and variation in Rio de Janeiro’s criminalized governance arrangements across space and time. Barnes uses a comparative ethnographic research design based on three years of multi-method research that compares the governance activities of three separate drug-trafficking gangs over four decades. Dr. Nicholas Barnes is a lecturer at the School of International Relations at the University of St. Andrews and is affiliated with the faculty at the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies and the Centre for the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence. He received his PhD at the University of Wisconsin and was a Postdoctoral Fellow at Brown University’s Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs.
The Structure of the Inquiry
This book contains a section on abbreviations, acronyms, and translated words, an introduction, seven chapters, a conclusion, an epilogue, appendices, references, and an index. The book’s chapters can be divided thematically into three. The first chapter, which is also the introduction, explains the driving questions of the book and provides a brief literature review showing the importance of this study in the field. The second, third, and fourth chapters help develop the concept of criminalized governance, develop a generalizable theory, and provide background on the development of the three gangs studied in this book. The second section, chapters five, six, and seven, trace the evolution of these three gangs and the factors behind their varying forms of criminal governance. Finally, chapters eight and nine provide the factors that led to the military occupation of the neighborhoods where these gangs operate and the gang’s response, as well as an update on the changes and continuities in the neighborhood.
The first chapter (Introduction) introduces us to the neighborhood and remarkable fieldwork conducted by the author and the importance of this study in academia. Barnes also established his main argument in this section. He argues that gangs govern because they inhabit a dangerous world and need the obedience and support of local communities if they are to survive. He then describes criminalized governance as comprising two dimensions: coercion and the provision of benefits. Within criminalized governance, he identifies four ideal-typical criminalized governance regimes. The first is a social bandit gang that employs low levels of coercion while providing responsive benefits to the community. Then there is a benevolent dictator gang that uses high levels of coercion while simultaneously providing responsive benefits to residents. This type is followed by the tyrant gang that employs high levels of coercion while being unresponsive to requests for benefits from residents. The last form is a laissez-faire gang that uses little coercion while providing few if any, benefits to the community. The book seeks to explain why these forms of governance can vary across time and space.
The author explains that criminalized governance is a strategic response to two kinds of threats: rival gangs and the police. The author argues that gangs can face three levels of rival threat: active, latent, or absent. The level of threat they face determines the coercive practices they will use against the population within their territory. The author describes the threat of police enforcement as transient as they do not seek a permanent presence in the territory, but the degree of the threat will determine a gang’s willingness to provide benefits to local communities. Barnes describes resident behaviors that impact governance outcomes as those of denunciations and demands and explains how criminalized governance becomes a joint production driven by the interactions between gangs and residents within particular security environments. The author also provides a map of the area under study (Complexo da Maré), which shows that gangs control different regions within the neighborhood.
The second chapter (Criminalized Governance: A Conceptual Framework) develops the concept of criminalized governance and details the activities and behaviors in his categorization of coercion and the provision of benefits. The author attempts to capture the flexible and diverse variety of gangs by defining them as autonomous organizations that display a measure of institutional continuity independent of their membership, routinely engage in violent behavior patterns that are considered illegal by the dominant authorities and mainstream society and consist of members who are principally under the age of 25. Barnes describes criminal governance as referring to one of three distinct but inseparable sets of activities: how OCGs govern their members, how OCGs govern illicit markets, or how OCGs govern populations outside the criminal underworld. This book concerns itself with the last level of governance. The author then proceeds to describe coercion as the use and threat of violence to deter disobedience and encourage resident compliance with gang control. He argues that gangs in Rio de Janeiro engage in three primary coercive activities, which can be described as physical presence, punishment, and surveillance. The other dimension of criminalized governance is that of the provision of benefits. Barnes describes these activities as intended to legitimize the gang in the eyes of the local population, encouraging residents to remain silent and to gain some residents’ outright allegiance or support. Again, the author provides three primary types of benefits: dispute resolution, economic stimulation, and recreation. Barnes finalizes the chapter by detailing the four typologies of criminalized governance described in the introduction.
The third chapter (A Theory of Criminalized Governance) uses ethnographic insights to develop a generalizable theory for when and why these various criminal governance regimes emerge. The author expands on the way in which threats by rival gangs and the police impact the type of criminal governance regime in the area. He also details how residents’ interactions with gangs also contribute to the regime established. Interestingly, the author can contextualize the threat of a rival gang taking over versus police pressure, as a gang takeover has much more dire consequences for the gang members and their families. The author is also able to explain the value of the communities for these gangs as they can serve as a way to escape capture or hide guns and drugs when police pressure increases. He also notes the threat residents can wield through denunciations that can result in police raids and arrests. The author finalizes the chapter by addressing three additional factors that may also shape criminalized governance which are not explicitly included in the theory. These factors are: the drug trade and other illicit economies, the role of the state beyond the police, and the specific characteristics of favela neighborhoods.
The fourth chapter (The Origins of Criminalized Governance) describes the origins of the three gangs that dominated Complexo da Maré during the author’s fieldwork. The author also notes how the dynamic of competition and enforcement can also help explain their emergence and their first forays into governance. Barnes describes the emergence of gangs in this region due to the breakdown of previous governance arrangements. As the population grew, several nonstate actors who had previously helped maintain order and provided some essential services could no longer do so. Factors compiled as the military dictatorship marginalized favelas, and things began to unravel. As conditions worsened and previous forms of governance collapsed, the emergence of gangs became inevitable. The strategy of governance emerged due to the high levels of rivalry of gangs over territory and the increasing focus of police on these gangs. Favelas eventually had to merge their highly cohesive and stable governance mechanisms with the reality of gang control and formed a social contract that exists to this day. The author provides an overview of the early history of Rio’s favelas and the predecessors of gangs in the city. These formations came in different waves and were often tied to racist tropes that tied race to criminality. The author notes the long history of removals by police and the military and the worsening prosecution during military dictatorships. He then focuses on Maré and its settlement patterns, expanding on the actors that first provided governance prior to the emergence of gangs and how the deterioration of conditions led to gang formation and eventual governance.
The access to fresh water became very problematic as the population expanded in Maré. These worsening conditions, combined with the use of torture and the suspension of several civil and political rights by the police, would lead to several gangs being formed. Eventually, three different gang organizations from different favelas would emerge in Maré: Nova Holanda, Parque União, and Moro do Timbau. Nova Holanda gang emerged early on with the construction of the community. As violence and criminality increased, multiple gangs emerged and began to compete, which precipitated more intensive and coercive forms of governance. A decade later, Parque União and Moro do Timbau would also begin to govern in a similar manner as competition between gangs emerged. Through residents’ demands, these gangs were able to legitimize their authority and began to obtain silence and support from residents.
The fifth chapter (Comando Vermelho of Nova Holanda) traces the evolution of the Nova Holanda gang’s governance practices since its integration into the CV faction in the early 90s until the occupation of Maré by the Brazilian Military in April 2014. The author can link the changes in governance with the shifting security environment in which the gang has found itself. The author traces their governance starting with that of a benevolent dictatorship from 1994-99 as police continued their enforcement and the risk presented by their rival TC remained latent. An all-out war between the two from 1999-2004 would create disorder that would increase coercive behavior by the gang. The end of the war and the weakening of TCP led to a social bandit regime from 2004-09. As the police pressure increased, so did the need to prove benefits to residents. In 2009, the TCP would become the most powerful gang in Maré, once again raising the latent threat and shifting the governance regime back to the benevolent dictator.
The sixth chapter (Comando Vermelho of Parque União) focuses on the governance practices of the CV gang that controlled Maré’s most populous favela for more than three decades. They also belonged to the CV faction, but their governance styles differed from those described in the last chapter. CV has sustained a social bandit regime due to the absence of an active rival gang, leading to low levels of coercion. There was a moment in the early 2000s when inter-gang violence led to limited use of threats and violence, but this was very limited. They have provided the community with significant benefits such as several forms of welfare and recreational opportunities like holiday parties throughout their history due to police enforcement being very high against them.
The seventh chapter (Terceiro Comando (Puro) of Complexo da Maré) describes the TCP gang that controls a more considerable amount of territory than the previous two cases. Unlike the last two cases, they were able to collaborate with police, which has resulted in lower levels of enforcement. TC is also a unique case as it would split in two due to tensions between its leaders and dynamics within Rio’s prisons. The split created the TCP, while the other allied with the ADA. In 2009, TCP would take over the territory controlled by the ADA with help from the police and their leaders who escaped prison. This territorial expansion would create a situation of little to no threat by rival gangs while they retained a collaborative relationship with the police. During the fragmentation of the TC, the danger of rival gangs increased, leading to a governance regime characterized by extreme violence. The consolidation of territory led to far less coercive governance. The TCP also changed their relationship with police from that of directly confronting them to a more collaborative relationship. The period led by confrontation necessitated more support from residents, but as relations proliferated with the police, the need to provide residents with benefits decreased. When they first took over the territory, they decided to be more coercive and provide more responsiveness to the needs of the residents to consolidate their support as they eradicated the reminisces of the ADA. However, as time passed, their governance style became less coercive and responsive as they consolidated control over their newly acquired territory.
The eighth chapter (Criminalized Governance during Military Occupation) traces factors that led to the military intervention in Maré. As the 2014 World Cup, which would be hosted in Brazil, approached, the military decided to recapture control of several favelas by imposing physical force, repairing community-police relations, and integrating these neighborhoods within the infrastructure and services of the city. The military would occupy Maré for fifteen months, taking away the gang’s territorial control and ability to govern in the ways they had for nearly thirty years. The military could refine its tactics through operations in Haiti and would impose these tactics in their territory. The military would attempt to gain the resident’s support by providing several benefits like upgrading infrastructure and collaborating with civil society, but the violent and repressive tactics used to combat gang violence impeded their objectives. Most shocking is the long-term failures of this military operation. As the second the military left, the three gangs could reestablish their control and reopen their businesses. The variation in gang responses to this military intervention is tied back by the author to the threats or lessening of threats among rival gangs during this period.
The ninth chapter (Conclusion) documents the changes and continuities in Maré and Rio de Janeiro since 2015, the end of the author’s fieldwork in the region. One of the important continuities seems to be the problematic relationship between the police and the residents of the favelas. Rio de Janeiro also failed to bring in the grand infrastructure projects it had promised as economic problems increased, leading to a new military intervention. As the police increased their repression and violence, the gangs have been able to continue to thrive in these communities by continuing to build their relationships with the community. The author proposes ways in which policing of these communities could change, including using a harm reduction model, opening dialogue and mediation among the different groups, and legalizing and decriminalizing illicit drugs. The author also notes the racial component of this problem, noting how the government and society have done little to provide alternatives to residents in favelas. The author expands the bounds of his theory and argument across Brazil and beyond, showing how several of the insights produced in this book are replicated in different scenarios.
The tenth chapter (Epilogue) brings the book full circle as it describes the final interview conducted with the man aliased by the author as Severino, with whom the book begins.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Barnes uses a comparative ethnographic research design based on three years of multi-method research that compares the governance activities of three separate drug-trafficking gangs over four decades. The theoretical component of this book is very strong and uses insights from other scholars like Kalyvas and some unique insights to build a convincing categorization and explanation for the usage and variation of criminal governance in Maré and possibly beyond. I would have been interested to see an expansion of the discussion on Kalyvas, particularly his previous statements on organized crime and how his theories did not apply to these cases. I believe the author is right to challenge these assumptions by Kalyvas and could further an interesting discussion in the studies on violence. Inside Criminalized Governance is of interest to any scholar of violence, crime, and governance and should be widely read throughout these fields as it represents an important contribution to all of these fields.
Endnotes
[1] John P. Sullivan, “From Drug Wars to Criminal Insurgency: Mexican Cartels, Criminal Enclaves and Criminal Insurgency in Mexico and Central America. Implications for Global Security.” Working Paper No9. Paris: Fondation Maison des sciences de l’homme, April 2012.
[2] John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker, Eds., Strategic Notes on Third Generation Gangs. (A Small Wars Journal–El Centro Anthology.) Bloomington: Xlibris, 2020.
[3] John P. Sullivan and Robert J. Bunker, Eds., Competition in Order and Progress: Criminal Insurgencies and Governance in Brazil. (A Small Wars Journal–El Centro Anthology.) Bloomington: Xlibris, 2022.
