Thursday, March 30 | 1 p.m. ET Dr. Randolph Roth, a Professor of History and Sociology at Ohio State University, is the author of American Homicide. Scholars have been puzzled by the rise in homicides since 2015. Many theories that have been put forth have merit, but most take a short-term view of why the rate of […]

Urban Gang Violence is widely synonymous with criminality and deviance. However, this conversation showcased examples from Pakistan, Brazil, Ecuador and DR Congo to complicate our understanding of gangs. From violent criminal behavior to service provision and community legitimacy, HFG grantees explored the sometimes paradoxical role of urban gangs and offered suggestions for mitigating the violence […]

“Violent extremism remains one of Africa’s most pressing security threats. Employing asymmetric tactics and integrating within local communities, militant groups have sought to amplify grievances and intercommunal differences as a means of mobilizing recruitment and fostering antigovernment sentiments.” (Africa Center for Strategic Studies) This conversation drew on the work and expertise of two HFG grantees […]

Angélica Durán-Martínez is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Director of the Global Studies PhD program at the University of Massachusetts Lowell. She is the author of Cocaine Smuggling: Between Geopolitics and Domestic Power Struggles (2021). Guillermo Trejo is co-author of Votes, Drugs, and Violence: The Political Logic of Criminal Wars in Mexico (2020), and Professor of Political Science, and Director of the Violence and Transitional Justice Lab at the University of Notre Dame. Javier Osorio is an Assistant Professor in the School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Arizona. He co-authored Legacies of Resistance: Mobilization Against Organized Crime in Mexico (2020).

Dr. Chris Blattman is the author of Why We Fight: The Roots of War and Paths to Peace and Ramalee E. Pearson Professor of Global Conflict Studies at The University of Chicago, in Harris Public Policy and The Pearson Institute.  What’s behind the war in Ukraine, and what is next? Why did the Unites States remain so long […]

Tracie L. Keesee has been a serial trailblazer.  The first African American commander in the Denver Police Department.  Denver’s first female police captain.  The first deputy commissioner for equity and inclusion in the New York City Police Department (NYPD).  And the cofounder of the Center for Policing Equity, an organization dedicated to reducing racial disparities […]

Dr. Maria (Mayte) Restrepo-Ruiz is a Research Associate with the Department of Public Health Sciences at the University of Connecticut. She completed her PhD work in the summer of 2021 titled Armed Conflict, Intimate Partner Violence and Women’s Mental Health in Colombia: An Explanatory Mixed-Methods Study. “Intimate Partner Violence and Armed Conflict in Colombia” explores […]

Over the past couple of years, John Jay College professor Peter Moskos has been a prominent voice warning about the rise in violence in American cities and the potential perils of depolicing.  Moskos brings a unique point of view to the public conversation about policing: in addition to being a Harvard-trained sociologist, he spent more […]

In the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis, protesters took to the streets in many American cities to condemn police brutality. Some places also suffered from widespread looting and property destruction that will take years to restore.  Little of this came as a surprise to Kami Chavis, the director of the criminal […]

Dr. Godfrey Maringira is the author of Soldiers and the State in Zimbabwe and an Associate Professor of Anthropology at Sol Plaatje University, South Africa. Exploring the ways in which former soldiers maintain and ‘reuse’ their military training for survival, in contexts of violent inner cities with high unemployment, Dr. Maringira’s talk, “Soldiers in Exile,” […]