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64Urban crime and violenceYouth gangs arefound throughoutthe world, partlyspurred by rapidurbanization,exclusion, povertyand the enactmentof repressive publicpolicies towardsmarginalized groupsMany young menfrom marginalizedcommunities joingangs who help toreplace theextended family andwho provideeconomic and socialvalues not found inmainstream societyWestern Europe, and nations within Southeast Asia, CentralAmerica and Western Africa. Corruption and weak stateinstitutions have been identified as some of the principal riskfactors associated with the prevalence of transit routes insome of these regions and nations. In one of the highesttransit zone states – Bulgaria – corruption linked to organizedcrime and human trafficking were cited as principalreasons initially hindering its accession to the EU. 98Trafficking people is a relatively low-risk, low-costventure for organized crime. The International Organizationfor Migration (IOM) notes that ‘compared with other illicitforms of trafficking such as drugs or weapons, the investmentsmade by the traffickers in a victim are limited totransportation and, sometimes, documentation, bribes,protection and marketing’. 99 Moreover, unlike other illegalcommodities such as drugs, which can generally be sold onlyonce to a consumer, human contraband can be sold severaltimes over.The regions that are the most common destinationsinclude countries within Western Europe, East andSoutheast Asia, and some countries in the Western Asia subregion,such as Turkey. The US and Canada, respectively, areidentified as very high and high destinations for humantrafficking. Germany is the highest destination nation forwomen and children trafficked for sexual purposes. 100There are two prime reasons underlying trafficking todestination countries: the first is the demand for cheaplabour in destination nations; the second is the perception ofgreater economic and living opportunity in destinationnations by victims from origin nations. These beliefs areeasily exploited by traffickers who typically prey on poorlyeducated individuals from distressed social and economicbackgrounds. For example, a United Nations InterregionalCrime and Justice Research Institute (UNICRI) study thatdocuments women trafficked from Romania to Germanynotes that:Recruiters targeted young women (17 to 28years old) from rural areas with a low level ofeducation and no employment. While beingrecruited, 95 per cent of victims were lied toregarding the nature of the work they weregoing to perform in Germany, the workingconditions and the living conditions inGermany. 101Trafficking often involves the movement of persons,especially females, from rural to urban areas across borders,as well as within their own nations. Victims are lured tocities with promises of work or marriage, such as in Lao PDR,Viet Nam and Indonesia, where many are later exploited infactories, for sexual purposes or domestic servitude. InEcuador, some poor farm families have been forced to selltheir children to work in the cities, and in Cambodia,traffickers move large number of rural women to cities totake advantage of the demand for cheap labour and sex. 102Indeed, serving the urban sex industry is a primary reasonfor trafficking women and girls.Youth and territory-based gangsLike organized crime, youth gangs are found throughout theworld, partly spurred by rapid urbanization, exclusion,poverty and the enactment of repressive public policiestowards marginalized groups. Some gangs, such as the Cripsfound in the US and Europe, have international reach andhave become ‘institutionalized’ by virtue of persistence overtime, complex organizational composition, adaptive survivalstrategies and the ability to meet some local communityneeds. In the US, increase in gang violence has beenpopularly linked to the growth in cocaine markets beginningduring the 1980s, although empirical studies do not clearlysupport causal connections. 103 In Latin America, youth gangsconstitute key features on the urban violence landscape, andare variously known as pandillas, maras, bandas, galeras,quadrilhas, barras and chapulines. 104 Examples include theyouth gangs of Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, Brazil, whoseviolence is legendary throughout Latin America, even spawningan internationally acclaimed movie entitled Cidade deDeus (City of God). In Brazil, two-thirds of all homicidesinvolve youths, 105 where children as young as six years aredrawn into gangs to serve as lookouts and carriers of harddrugs. 106 Apart from drug trafficking, youth gangs inGuatemala regularly engage in pick pocketing, mugging,theft and bus robberies, kidnapping and arms trafficking, aswell as various forms of social violence such as territorialconflict, rape and vandalism. 107 In sub-Saharan Africa, wherethe impacts of rapid urbanization and poverty have beenparticularly severe, many young men from marginalizedcommunities join gangs who help to replace the extendedfamily and who provide economic and social values notfound in mainstream society.Although seen as a reaction to economic conditions,one research stream suggests that institutionalized urbanyouth gangs have evolved as avenues through which resistanceidentities have been forged as a means for marginalizedyoung people to stand against prevailing cultures and theinstability of modernizing societies. 108 In this context, youthgangs may be distinguished from organized crime groups,which have been described as primarily profit driven. Whileno reliable numbers exist, it has been estimated that, worldwide,membership of youth gangs runs into millions –spreading throughout both high and low crime cities. Whilethe direction of causality is arguable, recent researchsuggests that cities that have high violence rates tend to haveinstitutionalized youth gangs, and this includes Chicago, LosAngeles, Rio de Janeiro, Medellin, Caracas, Kingston, Lagos,Mogadishu and Belfast. 109Although youth gangs often become involved incommon crime and violence, their enterprises also intertwinewith mainstream community life, thus makingsuppression especially challenging. While this involvementmay include politics, one trend has been away from politicization,especially as left-wing movements declined duringthe 1990s. A recent study quotes a Central Americanjournalist in this regard, who notes: ‘Until recently, a rebelliousyouth from Central America would go into themountains and join the guerrillas. Today, he leaves the