Gang members who are also inmates pose for a photograph at a prison in Quezaltepeque, on the outskirts of San Salvador June 2, 2012. The relentless tit-for-tat murders between El Salvador's two largest street gangs - "Calle 18" and "Mara Salvatrucha" - made the country the most murderous in the world last year after neighboring Honduras, also ravaged by gang violence. That was until Garcia, from the Calle 18 ("18th Street") gang, along with elders from the Mara Salvatruchadeclared an unprecedented truce that authorities say has cut the homicide rate in half in just four months. Picture taken June 2, 2012. To match Feature SALVADOR-GANGS/ REUTERS/Ulises Rodriguez (EL SALVADOR - Tags: CRIME LAW CIVIL UNREST) - RTR34YC6

Inside out: The challenge of prison-based criminal organizations

In Central America and Brazil—and even in the United States—prison gangs have evolved from small predatory groups to sophisticated criminal organizations with the capacity to organize street-level crime, radically alter patterns of criminal violence, and, in the extreme, hold governments hostage to debilitating, orchestrated violence and corruption. [author-bio] In this paper, Benjamin Lessing argues that … Continue reading Inside out: The challenge of prison-based criminal organizations

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