ABSTRACT
Criminal-soldiers come in many guises. They may be members of a street gang or mara, members of a mafia or organized criminal enterprise, terrorists, insurgents, pirates, or warlords. In all cases, they challenge the traditional state monopoly on violence and political control. They may co-exist within stable states, dominate ungovernable, lawless zones, slums, or ‘no-go’ zones, or be the de facto rulers of criminal enclaves or free-states. Likewise, the ‘criminal state’ may range from a street gang’s narrow gang-controlled turf of a few blocks or segments of blighted housing estates to larger uncontested neighborhoods in a barrio, favela, gecekondu, chawl, slum or mega-slum. Alternately, they can exist as ‘para-states,’ ‘statelets’ or ‘virtual states’ in a combination of physical and increasingly networked terrain.
