Abandon all BOPE? Militarization, Murder, and Drug Gangs in Rio de Janeiro

• In Event: The Impact of Policy on Drug Use, Drug Related Violence, and Harm Reduction

Abstract

Militant enforcement, similar to that in Mexico and the Philippines, has been directed against the drug gangs which proliferate in Brazilian favelas. We use difference-in-differences and other quasi-experimental methods to examine the effects of Special Police Battalion Operations (BOPE) on rates of drug-trafficking violence in the 164 neighborhoods of Rio de Janeiro. Using highly-granular geocoded data from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project (ACLED), we aim to estimate the causal impacts of these interventions, with special attention to heterogeneous treatment effects and dynamic effects across time.

Authors

• Jared Greathouse, Georgia State University

• Eric Sevigny, Georgia State University

• Danye Medhin, Georgia State University