Revise and resubmit, Latin American Politics and Society
Examines how infrastructure construction under Brazil’s Growth Acceleration Program (PAC) increased homicides via the “logistical violence premium” mechanism, using a staggered difference-in-differences design across 184 municipalities in Ceará, Brazil.
Cite as: Ribeiro, Felipe. "Paving the Way for Violence." Revise and resubmit, Latin American Politics and Society.
Working paper
Presented at the European Political Science Society Meeting, Belfast, June 2026.
Compares the Primeiro Comando da Capital (São Paulo) and Comando Vermelho (Rio de Janeiro) to ask how criminal governance structure conditions the effects of leader removal. Using an event-study design that distinguishes arrests from police killings, the paper finds that removals shift violence between visible and concealed forms rather than simply raising or lowering its level, with undetermined-intent deaths serving as a proxy for concealment.
Cite as: Ribeiro, Felipe. "Decapitation and the Visibility of Violence: Leader Removal in Brazilian Criminal Organizations." Working paper.