Resident Resistance: The Territorial Logic of Denouncing Organized Crime

• In Event: The Politics of Control and Resistance in Violent Contexts

Abstract

Why do citizens living under the control of powerful organized criminal groups (OCGs) denounce them to state authorities? Since the 1980s, a variety of OCGs have maintained territorial control of hundreds of Rio de Janeiro’s favelas (impoverished informal neighborhoods). Although they have few safe or effective options to collectively resist these groups, some favela residents have done so by denouncing OCG members and their activities through an anonymous hotline, Disque Denúncia. The content and frequency of these denunciations, however, varies considerably across time and space. This article argues that anonymous denunciation is highly strategic in nature as residents attempt to control violence and punish criminals within different security environments. Building from insights garnered during 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork in a set of OCG-controlled favelas, this article develops a theory of denunciation that revolves around two dynamics related to OCG territorial control: violent competition with rivals and police enforcement. The observable implications of this theory are then tested with a geo-located longitudinal dataset of 24,000 anonymous denunciations.

Author

• Nicholas Barnes, University of st Andrews