Shock of Peace: Intersections between Social Welfare and Crime Control Policy in Rio de Janeiro's Favelas

As Brazil prepares to host the 2014 World Cup and the 2016 Olympic Games, the municipal government of its second-largest city, Rio de Janeiro, seeks to establish infrastructure and security for the hundreds of thousands of expected tourists. To that end, the city is undertaking urban development projects and a novel policing strategy called "pacification" in several of the city's favelas, the informal settlements that house roughly 22 percent of Rio's population (Hurrell 2011). This paper analyzes the role of social service provision in ensuring the success of both urban redevelopment projects and crime control strategies in the favelas.