Accessibly written and tightly argued, this book should reorient social science and policy debates on its topic, and will find wide adoption across a range of courses.—CHOICE

This book is a major contribution to the scholarly discussion on urban violence in Latin America.—Latin Americanist

A path-breaking book that will change the way we understand Rio de Janeiro and other cities plagued by the territorial control of violent criminal networks.—The Americas

Arias spent years shuttling between three different favela communities in Rio at considerable personal risk. As a result, his book is wonderfully rich in insight, observation, and detail, and it goes right to the institutional heart of the problem. I have no doubt that it will be required reading for anyone interested in violence in Brazil and the rest of Latin America.—Robert Gay, Connecticut College

Drugs and Democracy in Rio de Janeiro provides new insights based on original research on criminal and community networks in the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. As cities in Brazil confront organized gangs of drug dealers who are better funded and better armed than the state—and protected by their connections—the urban poor are trapped in multiple layers of vulnerability, as Arias so richly demonstrates.—Janice E. Perlman, President of The Mega-Cities Project and author of the forthcoming Marginality from Myth to Reality in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro: 1969-2005