Are organised armed gangs capable and ideologically committed to overthrowing the state and challenging for political power?
This seminar will address the violent trajectory of gangs in the global South and discuss whether changes in gang structures and countries over the last few years have created opportunities for them challenging the governance and legitimacy of weak states.
Drawing on the work of gang scholars, the seminar will address the question of whether the situation in Haiti has some lessons for countries in the global South with respect to gang violence. The gangs of Haiti appear to have overrun the state, or what is left of it. Looking at the evolution and development of gangs in South Africa and Haiti, we address what lessons if any, we can learn for our common futures in developing countries of the global South.
Speaker bio
Irvin Kinnes has been researching armed organised and violent gangs in South Africa for more than twenty-five years. He has expertise in gang mediation, gang governance, policing and community conflicts involving gangs. Irvin is an associate professor in criminology at the Centre of Criminology at the University of Cape Town. He is recipient of the 2002 UNODC Vienna Civil Society Award for the fight against gangs and drugs. He is a holder of a master’s in criminology from the LSE and a PhD from the University of Cape Town.
This webinar is the ninth of a series of bi-monthly webinars entitled Security and Justice Futures which aim to confront the dilemmas, re-imaginings and futures of security and justice from a cross-regional perspective. Drawing from a range of speakers from north and south contexts, the series seeks to engage with both academic and practitioner audiences to encourage a mutual dialogue on the futures of security and justice in diverse contexts.
