Analysis of the Effect Violence has on Poverty in Developing Countries

In Consideration of The Locust Effect by Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros

Samantha Catron
April 10, 2016
This assignment was completed in respect to the Honor Code.

Hidden within some of the worlds most corrupt and underdeveloped

countries lies a very pervasive force of violence affecting the daily lives of
millions of individuals living in poverty. In The Locust Effect, Gary Haugen
and Victor Boutros unveil this phenomenon and how it undermines any
efforts towards development in the third world. Invisible forms of violence
such as: sexual violence, forced labor, land seizures, abusive police, and
torture become so deeply integrated into a culture they are typically masked
from the mainstream eye. The authors point out misguided efforts to help
countries where poverty affects a large majority of the population, due to a
lack of effective aid and proper analysis of the causes of poverty, that in
which ultimately fail because they do not address the root cause of the
situation. Without solving the conflict of day-to-day violence any means of
improvement in terms of public health, education, and housing will likely fall
victim to the harsh reality of violence facing the poor.
The upmost important notion towards eradicating poverty is
functioning law enforcement. For, [people] are utterly dependent upon
inputs and protections outside of [themselves], and most importantly, need
protection from forces of human violence (Haugen and Boutros, 47).
Without physical protection, one cannot thrive in any way if they are
terrorized in such deep fear that their life is in danger. Security is taken for
granted in developed countries when the state provides an effective means
of protecting the population regardless of socioeconomic status. However,
affording such protection is quite costly if you are one of the 800 million

people living in the harshest poverty, the equivalent of living on $1.00 a day,
and are repressed by states that fail to adequately provide such services
(Haugen and Boutros, 40). To completely understand how poverty is
exasperated by violence it is important to understand how deeply imbedded
it is in the communities of some developing countries.
The widespread conflation of sexual violence, domestic violence, and
other coercive abuse dramatically affects the poor; while overwhelmingly
affecting women and girls in poor communities in more significant values
than their fellow male community members (Haugen and Boutros, 51). This
issue goes largely unnoticed considering most incidences happen in private
homes, neighborhoods, even schools where it most commonly occurs
(Haugen and Boutros, 55). Indicated as The Girl Effect, it is a clashing
reality that will undermine any prospects of an education for females in the
developing world. Such, Impunity for violence against women contributes
to a climate where such acts are seen as normal and acceptable rather than
criminal, where women do not seek justice because they know they will not
gain it . . . (Haugen and Boutros, 53). For a school will remain useless to
those who legitimately feel too threatened to attend.
The means of sexual violence allows the perpetrator to distant their
victim from any protective force and provide opportunity to exploit them
through prostitution, and in similar fashion-forced labor. Criminals prey on
the physically and financially vulnerable who are unable to afford the private
protective services elites have access to (Haugen and Boutros, 62). Such

modern-day slavery has taken the lives of the poor in extreme numbers
--estimated around 27 million (Haugen and Boutros, 18). The weaknesses of
the poor expose them to deceiving job offers or subject them to harsh
repayment of a debt or loan (Haugen and Boutros, 69-70). When corruption
is the norm, bribes are preferred over indicting such criminals. The rich and
powerful are able to use, the authorities as their instruments of abuse, or
[proactively purchase] official protection of their abuses through bribes
(Haugen and Boutros, 28). Therefore, no justice will be brought to victims,
even if pursued, because the court systems are so ineffective. With this in
mind it is more understandable to see how preventing violence must precede
other developing efforts
Violent land seizure is commonly used tactic to strip the poor of one of
the most fundamental rights: private property (Haugen and Boutros 76-77).
Those more powerful such as, abusive corporations, unscrupulous
developers and criminal gangs, can easily eradicate the poors well-being
by ransacking a home or occupying a business for their own advantage
(Haugen and Boutros, 81). This is possible because often times, there is no
reliable record keeping system for accurately demonstrating who owns the
land and the property (Haugen and Boutros, 79). Unfortunately, as Haugen
and Boutros point out women are the most susceptible victims to such crime
considering they are viewed as second-class citizens and property
themselves. Dispossessing women of property rights puts them and their
families in danger, and is also contradictive to overall growth and

development. For instance, in sub-Saharan Africa, 80 percent of the food

production is performed by women, but almost none of the land upon which
it is cultivated is owned by women (Haugen and Boutros, 80). If women are
the ones most subject to land grabbing, it will only undermine food
production and perpetuate the poverty they live under. Economic incentives
fuel these incidences and allow them to occur without consequence to the
perpetrator.
Law enforcement fails to interfere, because it is inherently
dysfunctional. Haugen and Boutros state that, men in the poor communities
fear being picked up by the police and being beaten or detained as a way of
extorting money, [and] women and girls fear being raped and sexually
assaulted by the police (Haugen and Boutros, 88). The poors perception of
the police force is plausibly distorted and enforcement officials are viewed
more often as oppressors. In many of the poorest countries, over three
quarters of the prisoners are in pre-trial detention, and, the majority of the
people in the prisons and jails have not been convicted of anything (Haugen
and Boutros, 89). The police utilize fear to mobilize the population to give in
to bribery and extortion. This corrupt law enforcement is often taken
advantage of by the elites who can deflect accountability of their own crimes
and blame those unable to afford themselves out of conviction. Even if a
falsely accused suspect was given justice they will still likely face the harsh
conditions of abusive detention. In Nigeria prisoners must face an average
of 3.7 years in pre-trial detention (Haugen and Boutros, 90). Conditions of

the detention centers are horrifying. While the torture some prisoners are
forced to endure is a result of poorly trained police who lack basic
investigative techniques and can only assume that torture is the best way to
extract confession and convict a suspect (Haugen and Boutros, 94). Such
dereliction originates from, abusive colonial regimes of the past, outdated
paramilitary models, reactive self-preservation instincts, and random
nonsense (Haugen and Boutros, 131). As countries gained independence
leaders and elites took advantage of the pre-existing system for their own
benefit.
This malpractice extends to the judicial system which is the most
fundamentally flawed aspect contributing to violence towards the poor. The
courts lack administrative efficiency and are prone to neglecting many cases
due to lost paperwork or just simply not having paper at all (Haugen and
Boutros, 140, 148). Figures also demonstrate the lack of prosecutors, judges,
lawyers, even stenographers and other personnel available whose absence
adds to congestion in the system (Haugen and Boutros 142, 146-147).
Criminals do not perceive the courts as threat considering, the deterrent
value of criminal sanction is proportional to its frequency and certainty and
the courts hold no functional accountability.
The Locust Effect demonstrates widespread patterns that exasperate
poverty and the vulnerability the poor have towards violence. Coined as the
poverty trap, Jeffery Sachs points out that, There is no margin of income
above survival that can be invested for the future, as far as the poor are

concerned (Sachs, 57). Without the means to save the poor, are the ones
who can never afford to have any bad luck (Haugen and Boutros, 104). In
the example of land grabbing, those who solely rely on their land for food
and a source of income are at a great disadvantage when their rights to
property are stolen from them. They are not only at risk for starvation and
violence, but their savings are depleted and they are economically immobile.
Additionally, as violence ensues and inequality between the rich and poor
increases, the government faces a fiscal trap in which it cannot provide
adequate services for its citizens (Sachs, 59). Thus, elites tend to rely on
private security that in which further undermines the possible funding for
state protection. For, thepopulationitselfmaybeimpoverished,sotaxationofthe
populationisnotfeasible(Sachs,59). When, the wealthy lose interest in public
services, so do the policy-makers responsible for providing high-quality
public services (Haugen and Boutros, 194). When such private businesses
prevail beyond the quality of state services there is no longer a need for
them, and the poor are left to fend for themselves. Elites tend to take on an
indifferent attitude, and actually began to favor the lawlessness that,
[protects] them from being held accountable for victimizing others, when,
justice systems auction impunity to the highest bidder, and when victims
are too poor to purchase protection from private substitutes, impunity comes
cheap (Haugen and Boutros, 195). This quagmire of venality only adds to,
vicious [circles] combining economic stagnation, repressive government
and limited civil or political freedoms (Friedman, 328). The cycle becomes a

self-fulfilling prophecy and will continue to blunder any efforts in improving

the economic status of developing countries.
Haugen and Boutros provide a fair analysis of inequality demonstrated
in various contexts. International actors and local communities all bear
responsibility in reclaiming prosperity for the poor. Developed countries
should be cognizant of where their attributed aid is being funneled and how
effective those funds will be in the long-term. They also should be compelled
to influence institutions such as the World Bank to allow for more effective
intervention when currently its, involvement in criminal justice sector
reform has been fundamentally handicapped (Haugen and Boutros, 206).
As class inequality continues to increase in developing countries, it has
become more pertinent for, indigenous leaders already within the criminal
justice systems [. . .] to rise up and be catalysts and drivers of change
(Haugen and Boutros, 189, 234). Additionally, tolerance and equality is
especially needed within these societies where women face much greater
degrees of discrimination as stated previously. It is significant to consider
that while women make up half the population; hypothetically, if they were
given equal opportunity to work the economy would double its productive
capital. Social norms desperately need to be revaluated for the sake of wellbeing for women and their families. To alleviate the harsh conditions of the
worlds most impoverished demands critical measures seeking to reform
social, political, and economic corruption, and will require genuine
compassion, analysis, and persistence.

Friedman, B. (2005). Virtuous Circles, Vicious Circles. In, The Moral

Consequences of Economic Growth (329-345). New York: Alfred A.
Knopf.
Haugen, G. A., & Boutros, V. (2014). The Locust Effect: Why the End of
Poverty Requires the End of Violence. New York, NY: Oxford University
Press.
Sachs, J. (2005). Why Some Countries Fail to Thrive. In, The End of Poverty:
Economic Possibilities of Our Time (51-73) New York: Penguin Group.