On May 28 and 29, FGV EBAPE, in Rio de Janeiro, will host the 15th Annual Meeting of the AL CAPONE Latin America Crime and Policy Network, an international conference dedicated to discussions on organized crime, violence, policing, and public security policies in Latin America. This year, Leme is one of the institutional partners of the event, which will bring together researchers and experts from different countries. Throughout the program, Leme researchers will participate in a range of academic sessions, panels, and discussions over the two-day conference.

On the first day (May 28), Joana Monteiro, Executive Director and Co-Founder of Leme, will present at 9:40 a.m. the paper “Market Liberalization and Organized Crime: Evidence from Mexico's Liquefied Petroleum Gas Liberalization Reform,” which examines the relationship between market liberalization and organized crime dynamics in Mexico. At 10:20 a.m., Vinicius Peçanha, Leme’s Area Lead, will serve as a discussant for the presentation “Reorganizing Crime: Logistics and Scale in Drug Trafficking,” providing comments on research related to illicit markets and drug trafficking. Later, at 11:30 a.m., Joana will also chair the migration session, dedicated to research on migration regularization, violence, and organized crime in Latin America.

In the afternoon, at 2:40 p.m., Giovanna Ubida, Leme’s Project Lead, will participate as a discussant for the presentation “Pretrial Detention and Recidivism in a High-Crime Environment: Evidence from Colombia,” focused on criminal justice and recidivism studies. Then, from 4:30 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Leme will take part in the panel “Researching Mano Dura in Latin America: The State of Evidence, Policy Impacts, and Future Avenues.” The discussion will bring together Joana Monteiro, Michael Weintraub, Leme Affiliated Researcher and professor at the Universidad de los Andes, and Carlos Schmidt-Padilla, from the University of California, to discuss evidence on “mano dura” strategies in Latin America, their impacts on public security, human rights, and democracy, as well as the challenges of bridging academic research and public policymaking.

The following day (May 29), at 10:00 a.m., Laura Schiavon, Leme’s Chief Scientist, will serve as a discussant for the presentation “Investing in Human Capital During Wartime: Experimental Evidence from Ukraine,” focused on research on human capital in conflict settings. Then, at 10:40 a.m., Julia Guerra, Leme’s Director of Projects and Research, will present the paper “The Right Age to Be Pacified: Policing Shocks and Adolescent Criminal Trajectories in Rio de Janeiro's Favelas,” which investigates the effects of policing interventions on adolescent criminal trajectories in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas.

The conference program also includes a keynote lecture by Christopher Blattman, from Chicago Harris, as well as sessions dedicated to organized crime, illicit markets, migration, and public policy, reinforcing the event’s role as a platform for academic exchange and regional debate on public security and violence in Latin America.

For more information, access the full program here.