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Gangs and Governance

TNI
May 2006

 

Gangs and Governance
Failed Governance in Marginalized Urban Areas

Many communities in urban areas in the South are confronted with serious human security problems due to the presence of criminal gangs, vigilante groups or paralegal 'security' squads that dominate the administration of private, arbitrary forms of justice and security in their communities.

Those communities often marginally survive in urban areas that are characterized as shantytowns where people have little access to the licit economy, education and adequate social services and are forced to live in precarious housing conditions. Local authorities have frequently simply abandoned these areas, creating a power vacuum that is filled by local gangs, vigilante groups or paralegal security arrangements of rogue police officers. These communities subsist in fact in occupied territories dominated by self-appointed providers of arbitrary and illicit forms of justice and security posing serious threats to values and practices of local autonomous forms of self-governance and democratic institutions.

These arbitrary justice and security arrangements are often referred to as "parallel power systems" or "feudal systems of government", neglecting that they often, more or less informally, are part of and interconnect with the existent systems of governance and civil society outside these urban areas. Adding to the problem are ill-conceived law enforcement responses geared towards short-term violent repression of crime gangs and tacit cooperation with or tolerance of vigilante groups or paralegal 'security' squads, as well as police corruption, excessive police violence and disrespect for human rights on the part of police forces that repeatedly operate with impunity.

The local communities, the arbitrary security providers and law enforcement forces are caught in a complex and reciprocal system of protection and clientelism. Members of these security providers often are part of the communities. Moreover, crime gangs often provide income and the rudiments of an alternative welfare system through charity. In their efforts to build local legitimacy and social capital, gangs act as benefactors of social life of the community, sponsoring local sport clubs, parties and cultural manifestations. Local gang lords or other security providers also provide for some form of governance (dispute settlement and social protection).

The violence and intimidation that reigns in these urban areas are hampering the development of democratic community organisations and, ultimately, the ability of the population to improve their living conditions and social advancement, despite the short-term benefits they might gain through cooperation. Some of the crime lords or security providers are also able to acquire political power directly or indirectly, seriously corrupting the political and administrative system. In the communities the appropriation of the monopoly of violence from the state amounts to uncontrolled security providers. This contributes to perpetuating poverty and social marginalization, as well as preventing efficient, fair governance.

Arbitrary security gangs will not allow any infringement upon their powers, which might limit and even prevent people to form or join community organisations, join forces for social mobilisation and acquire some countervailing power. Human security in marginalized urban areas is therefore a necessary precondition for effective poverty reduction and development. Strengthening the capacity of local communities and civil society to counter not only the negative impacts on the community and the political system (corruption, patronage end clientelistic systems), the undermining of the legal economy and social cohesion (unfair competition and recurrence to violence as means to settle conflicts), but also to uphold communities against a culture of illegality that seems to offer opportunities on the short term.

Too often, solutions to the problem are geared towards local capacity building, strengthening community organisations, alternative economic resources and social programmes, ignoring the fact that because of the power monopoly of local gangs, these programmes may unintentionally end up in reinforcing them. Local authorities and political organisations generally ignore the complex situation and have yet to identify adequate policies. Clearly, a different approach is badly needed. How to restore human security in these communities without and excessive recourse to police violence? How to counter the power monopoly of criminal gangs through forms of local democratic governance? What are the experiences of community movements and how can they be strengthened? What kinds of alternatives are available for local authorities that wish to take another approach?

TNI is currently involved in setting up a research project in three cities – Mumbai in India, Cape Town in South Africa and Rio de Janeiro in Brazil – to provide a comparative analysis of the major trends in governance issues in relation to gang control of communities in marginalized urban areas. The project will focus on how local community organisations and their leadership deal with the security situation, and how the position of local communities can be strengthened to act as autonomous and independent representatives of their communities. It aims to provide a detailed overview of the functioning and strategies of local community organisations within an environment of violence and arbitrary administration of security and justice, and the interaction between the communities, community organisations, state institutions and the arbitrary security providers. The objective is work out non-violent instruments for community organisations and institutions to counter the situation and attempt to restore democratic governance in these areas.

Background documents

General

Cape Town

Rio de Janeiro

Mumbai

  

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