Street drug markets beyond favelas in Belo Horizonte, Brazil

Abstract

This study examines whether social disorganization mechanisms that explain clusters of street drug markets in socially disorganized neighborhoods in developed countries can also help explain geographical patterns of drug dealing across neighborhoods in Belo Horizonte, Brazil. Data for this study includes drug arrests from 2007 to 2011 and socio demographic data from the 2010 Census. To examine the influence of exploratory variables on drug market locations, the Negative Binominal regression model was used at two levels of analysis-the Belo Horizonte city center and other neighborhoods including favelas. The findings show that a high hot spot of street drug markets located in the city center is positively associated with housing quality as well as negatively associated with residential tenure. Low hot spots were found in remaining neighborhoods, including impoverished areas of favelas and are related to key social disorganization indicators such as socio-economic status, age at risk, and residential tenure. This study has important implications for crime prevention policies and provides the basis for further comparative research on street drug markets across many different countries.