The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence

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by Gary A. Haugen & Victor Boutros

While the world has made encouraging strides in the fight against global poverty, the hidden plague of everyday violence silently undermines our best efforts to help the poor. Common violence like rape, forced labor, illegal detention, land theft, and police abuse has become routine and relentless. And like a horde of locusts devouring everything in its path, the unchecked plague of violence ruins lives, blocks the road out of poverty, and undercuts development. How has this plague of violence grown so ferocious? In one of the most remarkable social disasters of the last half century, basic public justice systems in the developing world have descended into a state of utter collapse, and there’s nothing shielding the poor from violent people.