September 23 – 24, 2014 | Washington, DC
Policymakers face many roadblocks in their pursuit to implement policies that reduce violence and improve rule of law, including a lack of time to review the available expertise. In order to probe these issues, the World Justice Project, the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Stanford University joined together to convene “Violence and Improving Rule of Law: Organized Crime, Marginalized Communities and the Political Machine."
The invitation-only workshop brought together top researchers, practitioners, and government policymakers in order to facilitate collaboration amongst them with the main goal of catalyzing opportunities for producing policy-relevant research that can be put into action. It targeted three spheres: reducing violence from political parties and elections, reducing violence by gangs, youth, and the state in marginalized communities, and reducing violence from organized crime.
Alejandro Ponce, chief research officer of the World Justice Project, Rachel Kleinfeld, a senior associate at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, and Beatriz Magaloni of Stanford University lead the expert group to discuss each of these arenas and create a policy-relevant research agenda. Discussions of Electoral Commissions affirmed the need for their neutrality and for substantial police support to expel electoral violence. Other discourse focused on the problem of criminal organizations and how to most effectively move forward with drug policies.
Workshop Participant Interviews
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