May Contain Markup

By Edwin S. Newman

Purpose: The book aims to provide an objective picture of the role of freedom in contemporary American society, focusing on civil rights and liberties.

Content: It includes excerpts from Supreme Court decisions and commentary from various experts, such as judges, lawyers, and political scientists.

Themes: Major themes include freedom and national security,censorship,academic freedom, and civil rights.

References: The document contains numerous references to works by notable authors and institutions, highlighting the breadth of perspectives included.

Oceana Publications, 1955, 256 pages

May Contain Markup

By Joesph R. Gusfield

Focus on Temperance Movement: The book examines the American Temperance Movement as a significant moral reform effort, analyzing its political and social implications.

Status Politics: It explores how status conflicts and cultural differences influence the movement, highlighting the role of social status in political tensions.

Cultural Symbols: The document discusses how drinking and abstinence served as symbols of social status, reflecting broader cultural and religious divides.

Historical Context: It provides a historical analysis of theTemperanceMovement's evolution, including its impact on American politics and society.

University of Illinois Press, 1986, 226 pages

By J. Harry Bennett Jr.

Codrington Plantations: The Codrington Plantations in Barbados were bequeathed to the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in 1710, employing about 300 slaves.

Slavery and Apprenticeship: The document explores the conditions of slavery and apprenticeship on these plantations from 1710 to 1838, highlighting the Society's efforts to manage and convert the slaves.

Humanitarian Efforts: The Society's attempts to improve the lives of the slaves included religious instruction and amelioration policies, though these efforts were often limited and met with resistance.

Historical Context: The document provides a comprehensive historical account of the British West Indies, emphasizing the significance of the Codrington estates in the broader context of slavery and colonialism.

University of California Press, 1958, 176 pages

By A. Meredith John

Historical Context: The book explores the history of Trinidad from 1498 to 1813, focusing on the introduction and role of slavery in the island's economic and political development.

Demographic Analysis: It provides a detailed demographic and mathematical analysis of the plantation slave population in Trinidad,using data from the Trinidad Slave Registers of 1813, 1815, and 1816.

Mortality and Fertility: The study examines plantation slave mortality and fertility, aiming to estimate plausible upper and lower bounds for these rates.

Unique Position: Trinidad's unique historical position as a frontier colony with fertile lands and a relatively recent introduction of slaves is highlighted, contrasting it with more established colonies like Jamaica And Barbados.

Cambridge University Press, 1988, 259 pages

May Contain Markup

By Elsa V. Goveia

Scope of Study: The book examines the political, economic, and social organization of the British Leeward Islands' slave society in the late 18th century, focusing on the relationships between masters,freedmen, and slaves.

Economic Dependence: The economy of the British West Indian Colonies, including the Leeward Islands, was heavily dependent on trade in tropical staples like sugar, molasses, and rum, as well as theAfricanslave trade.

Christian Missions: TheChristian missions played a significant role in the slave society, aiming to instill moral obligations in slaves to accept their status and improve their productivity and obedience.

References: The document includes a detailed list of sources and references used in the study, highlighting the extensive research conducted.

Greenwood Press, 1980, 370 pages

By Harry Fleischman

Legislative Advances: TheCivil Rights Act of 1964 and theVotingRights Act of 1965 marked significant legislative progress, with historian C. Vann Woodward noted their impact as comparable to theReconstruction era.

Economic Gains and Disparities: Despite economic improvements forAfrican Americans, such as increased median family income and job growth, significant disparities remained, particularly in housing and unemployment rates.

Challenges in Civil Rights Movement: The civil rights movement faced challenges in addressing issues in Northern urban ghettos, with organizations like CORE and SNCC struggling to establish strong roots and mobilize communities.

Watts Riots: TheWatts riots in Los Angeles highlighted deep-seated issues of unemployment, inadequate schooling, and police-community relations, leading to significant property damage and loss of life.

American Jewish Committee, 1966 , 29 pages

By ALICE WILLARD SOLENBERGER

This book is a detailed study of 1,000 homeless men in Chicago, conducted by Alice Willard Solenberger. It examines their physical conditions, causes of homelessness, and social remedies early in the 20th century.. Solenberger applied charity organization methods to homeless men, similar to those used for families, to understand and address their needs more effectively.. The study highlights the inadequate treatment of homeless men and suggests that personalized, in-depth approaches can lead to better outcomes and contains extensive raw data and information. Finally, it emphasizes the need for better laws and facilities to support homeless individuals and reduce vagrancy.

NY. Russell Sage Foundation. 1911. 397p.

Edited by Vishanthie Sewpaul, Linda Kreitzer, and Tanusha Raniga   

Cultural practices have the potential to cause human suffering. The Tensions between Culture and Human Rights critically interrogates the relationship between culture and human rights across Africa and offers strategies for pedagogy and practice that social workers and educators may use. Drawing on Afrocentricity and emancipatory social work as antidotes to colonial power and dehumanization, this collection challenges cultural practices that violate human rights, and the dichotomous and taken-for-granted assumptions in the cultural representations between the West and the Rest of the world. Engaging critically with cultural traditions while affirming Indigenous knowledge and practices, it is unafraid to deal frankly with uncomfortable truths. Each chapter explores a specific aspect of African cultural norms and practices and their impacts on human rights and human dignity, paying special attention to the intersections of politics, economics, race, class, gender, and cultural expression. Going beyond analysis, this collection offers a range of practical approaches to understanding and intervention rooted in emancipatory social work. It offers a pathway to develop critical reflexivity and to reframe epistemologies for education and practice. This is essential reading not only for students and practitioners of social work, but for anyone seeking a deeper understanding of African cultures and practices.

Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2021. 323p.

By Sylvia Walby and Karen A. Shire

The book offers a theory of trafficking and modern slavery with implications for policy through an analysis of evidence, data, and law. Despite economic development, modern slavery persists all around the world. The book challenges the current fragmentation of theory and develops a synthesis of the root causes of trafficking chains. Trafficking concerns not only situations of vulnerability but their exploitation is driven by profit-taking. The policy solution is not merely to treat the issue as one of crime but also concerns the regulation of the economy, better welfare, and social protection. Although data is incomplete, methods are improving to indicate its scale and distribution. Traditional assumptions of nation-state sovereignty are challenged by the significance of international law historically. Going beyond the polarization of the debates on sexual exploitation in the sex trade, the book offers an original empirical analysis that shows the importance of a focus on profit-taking. Although individual experience matters, the root causes of trafficking/modern slavery lie in intersecting regimes of inequality of gender regimes, capitalism, and the legacies of colonialism. The book shows the importance of coercion and theorizing society as a complex system.

Bristol, UK: Bristol University Press, 2024. 

By  Ariel G. Ruiz Soto and Andrew Selee

Increasingly, research suggests that providing legal pathways for migration may reduce unauthorized migration pressures, especially when coupled with targeted enforcement. As policymakers across the Americas assess whether and how to expand legal mobility pathways, understanding the pathways that exist currently and how they are used is a vital starting point. This fact sheet examines the U.S. legal pathways that exist for nationals of Mexico and the northern Central American countries of El Salvador, Guatemala, and Honduras, which have long been among the top sources of unauthorized migration to the United States. By analyzing U.S. government data, the fact sheet provides an overview of the extent to which migrants from these countries are issued immigrant visas, for those who intend to live permanently in the country; nonimmigrant visas, for those who seek to enter temporarily for seasonal work, study, or business; and humanitarian forms of admission, including refugee resettlement and humanitarian parole.

Washington, DC: Migration Policy Institute, 2024. 15p.

By Physicians for Human Rights

Survivor-centered, trauma-informed, and rigorous medico-legal documentation is essential to offer survivors a pathway to justice, with standardized forensic medical evaluations playing a key role in documenting and corroborating accounts of sexual violence and torture. To support Ukrainian government officials, civil society, and international partners in building systems to support survivors, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) assessed the medico-legal documentation pathway in Ukraine to identify opportunities to strengthen systems to center survivors’ well-being, autonomy, and access to remedies.

Physicians for Human Rights assessed the medico-legal documentation pathway in Ukraine to identify opportunities to strengthen systems to center survivors’ well-being, autonomy, and access to remedies.

Building on the numerous efforts by Ukrainian authorities and their partners to address challenges to medico-legal documentation, this policy brief outlines current obstacles that impede justice and healing for survivors and sets forth actionable opportunities for the Ukrainian government and other stakeholders for reform. The recommendations put forward in the brief emphasize the need to expand the pool of qualified professionals authorized to conduct forensic medical evaluations in cases of conflict-related sexual violence and torture. They also call for legislative reforms to empower survivors in the justice process, the development of standardized medico-legal documentation tools, and the implementation of capacity-building initiatives to ensure trauma-informed, survivor-centered approaches. Together, these efforts can transform the experience of survivors as they seek remedy and reparation and ultimately facilitate greater accountability and healing.

New York: Physicians for Human Rights, 2024. 10p.

By International Organization for Migration Regional Office for Central America, North America and the Caribbean San Jose, Costa Rica

The increase in irregular migration in the Central American and Mexican routes has generated an increase in the flow of migrants through dangerous zones, exposing migrants to various risks, from the use of dangerous means of transportation to situations of exploitation, violence and disappearances. In recent years, hundreds of migrants have been reported missing or dead in these zones. Protection services face challenges and limitations in providing comprehensive care to the large number of migrants passing through the region. These risks are increased for vulnerable populations such as unaccompanied minors, women and LGBTIQA+ persons. In response, governments recognize the need to ensure the physical, legal and emotional safety of migrants in transit through the region. This study, developed by the IOM Regional Program on Migration with the support of the Bureau of Population, Refugees and Migration of the United States Department of State, provides crucial information and lines of action to protect migrants in transit, contributing to the fulfillment of international commitments and the strengthening of coordination among member countries for the assistance and protection of migrants.

International Organization for Migration Regional Office for Central America, North America and the Caribbean San Jose, Costa Rica, 2024. 50p.   

By Magdalena Moorthy Kloss

This first detailed study of slavery in medieval Yemen examines the lives of women and men who were enslaved as children and then placed in various subaltern positions - from domestic servant to royal concubine, from quarryman to army commander.

Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2024.

By Daniel Drewski and Jürgen Gerhards

Across the world, the number of people forcibly displaced from their homes has more than doubled during the last decade. Although international law does not allow states to turn back refugees, some countries close their borders to refugees, some open their borders and grant extensive protection, while others admit some groups of refugees while excluding others. How can we make sense of these different responses to admitting refugees? In this book, Daniel Drewski and Jürgen Gerhards show that governments' refugee policy, as well as the stance adopted by opposition parties on the issue, is heavily dependent on how they frame their country's collective identity on the one hand and the identity and characteristics of the refugees on the other. By defining the "we" and the "others", politicians draw on collectively shared cultural repertoires, which vary by country and by political constituency within a country. The book is based on a discourse analysis of parliamentary debates. It explores the specific framing of nations' identities and the corresponding perceptions of otherness by focusing on six countries that have been confronted with large numbers of refugees: Germany, Poland, and Turkey, all responding to the exodus of Syrian and Middle Eastern refugees; Chile's reaction to the Venezuelan displacement; Singapore and its stance towards Rohingya refugees; and Uganda's response to the displacement from South Sudan. The study explores not only differences between governments of different countries but also the conflicting views of different political parties within the same country.

Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press,  2024.  321p.

By Mohammad Musfequs Salehin

This open-access book investigates the gendered violence and vulnerabilities experienced by Rohingya men and women, drawing on qualitative data from refugee camps in Bangladesh. It shows that in Myanmar, men suffered torture and sexual violence, while women experienced physical, mental, and sexual violence, legitimized by patriarchal norms. Sexual violence was wielded as a weapon to coerce their exodus from Myanmar and to disrupt the essential facets of Rohingya femininity, motherhood, and reproductive capabilities. Structural, cultural, and symbolic violence affected the Rohingya differently across gender lines. A gendered threat narrative and othering cast women as ‘ugly’ and reproductive threats while men are framed as potential threats to national security and Buddhist nationalism. In Bangladesh, gendered othering continued, with Rohingya men seen as security threats and women as vulnerable victims. This book contributes to peace and conflict studies, gender studies, and migration and refugee studies, by analyzing gendered violence.

Cham: Springer Nature, 2024.

Crisis Group Latin America Briefing N°51  

What’s new? Across the region where Brazil, Colombia, and Peru meet deep in the Amazon, an assortment of criminal organizations are exploiting the feeble reach of states, abundance of natural resources, and poverty of local communities to grow, diversify, and hatch new cross-border ventures. Why does it matter? Surging cocaine production in Peru and the spread of other rackets like gold dredging and illicit logging threaten Indigenous ways of life, spur deadly violence, and harm the environment. Should these criminal ventures go unchecked, they could undermine the already tenuous state control of the world’s largest rainforest. What should be done? Following up on promises made in 2023, the three countries should bolster security cooperation and harness foreign assistance with a view to prosecuting and sanctioning those responsible for environmental crimes. Support for law-abiding livelihoods and stronger collaboration with Indigenous communities at the front lines of criminal expansion are vital.

  Bogota/Brussels: International Crisis Group, 2024.    28p.

By James Robertson

There is evidence suggesting that a large part of the British public has a relatively narrow view of modern slavery, why it's happening, where it's happening, and who’s involved. This view shapes perspectives on what should be done about modern slavery, which tend to focus on punishing the perpetrators and supporting those at risk to better avoid exploitation, whilst leaving out how systemic drivers create the conditions that cultivate and sustain exploitation. There is also growing evidence that language used to describe modern slavery is not accepted by some people with lived experience. The project aimed to identify frames and narratives that would be more effective in increasing the understanding of modern slavery by the British public, enabling a more evidence-based and survivor-informed public debate, and developing language in collaboration with survivors that resonates with survivors of modern slavery in the UK.

Methods: The project first carried out desk-based research to gain an understanding of public perceptions of modern slavery and issues around the framing of modern slavery in the public debate. It then organized a workshop with people with lived experience to identify what they wanted the public to understand about modern slavery and what language should be used. The project developed messages and tested them in three focus groups with members of the British public, led by a research company (Survation). It then brought back experts by experience together to gather their views on the messages and the questions raised by the focus groups.

Key findings:

Drama triangle dominates the narrative on modern slavery – and masks the complexity of it

Modern slavery is often framed in a way that evokes the relationships in the so-called drama triangle, in which the government (the hero) is cracking down on the villains (evil gangs of people smugglers) who are kidnapping the victims of (women from overseas) who are being sexually exploited. The government (the heroes) are doing their best to rescue these ‘slaves’ (victims). The drama triangle masks the breadth and complexity of modern slavery.

The public has a broader understanding of modern slavery but the drama triangle shapes the primary associations.

On the whole, the British public’s understanding of modern slavery is somewhat broader and more nuanced than the common media narrative outlined above. However, the dominant associations do tend to align with the media narratives, that while modern slavery happens in the UK, it primarily affects people trafficked to this country by gangs into exploitation behind closed doors.

Outlining how specific policies increase the risk of exploitation can help reduce the blame placed on individuals

Outlining how policy choices made by the government create conditions that put people at risk can shift the emphasis toward the structural drivers of modern slavery and set up a conversation around how policy change is part of the solution. The more specific the messages were about both the policy problem and the policy solution, the more receptive the public was to the message. However, a great deal of emphasis by the public was still placed on the characteristics of ‘vulnerable’ individuals and the need for them to change; to ‘be more educated’ and ‘to know what to look out’ for.

Dominant narratives around immigration and crime shape understandings and attitudes to modern slavery

By far the most powerful narrative that seemed to block or get in the way of shifting blame away from survivors as if they are ‘illegal migrants’. Even if the public was sympathetic to how ‘desperate’ their situation was and how much they disagreed with the government’s immigration or labor policies, some expressed that people were ‘complicit’ with their exploitation because they broke the law either entering or once in the UK.

Evoking empathy can help shift public attitudes toward modern slavery

The research suggests that using shared values and simple, relatable language to evoke empathy with people experiencing trafficking can be used to disrupt or temporarily dislodge the blocking narrative around ‘illegal migration’. For example, a message that opened with the shared value of “No matter who you are or where you're from, wanting to guarantee the health and well-being of your family is as ordinary as breathing” before asking the public to “imagine if you worked non-stop and still couldn't afford to send your child to school or get your mum the medical help she needs”, was well received by the focus groups, shifting blame away from survivors, as it built empathy for people whose circumstances necessitated making some very difficult choices.

The term ‘victim’ evokes pity - not empathy - amongst the public and is disempowering for people with lived experience

The terms used to describe people who’ve experienced exploitation seemed to have an effect on the empathy the public felt towards survivors and their attitudes towards their role in tackling modern slavery. Amongst the public, ‘victim’ evoked sympathy rather than empathy, whereas ‘survivor’ evoked respect for the individual's strength and resilience. ‘Person with lived experience’ elicited that such a person had a role in leading change. This correlated with the preferences of people with lived experience who found the term ‘victim’ disempowering and warned that the term ‘survivor’ can be gendered and associated with particular forms of exploitation (particularly sexual exploitation) and an obligation to share traumatic stories.

Modern slavery is not a neutral frame

It is important to keep in mind that ‘modern slavery’ is in itself a frame, a metaphor likening multiple contemporary forms of exploitation to the transatlantic slave trade and triggering an association with the commonly used drama triangle.

This frame has been used by the government since before the introduction of the Modern Slavery Act to cast itself in a particular light and in doing so helped to obscure a more complex picture of the issue, including the impact of a “hostile environment” for migrants, which put people at greater risk of exploitation.

Communicators seeking to fill the gaps around the public's understanding of modern slavery must be mindful of this and act accordingly. This may not mean abandoning the term modern slavery altogether, but it does mean understanding that it is not a neutral frame.

2024. 36p.

By Stephanie Leutert

Every day, U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers send individuals into Mexican border cities, including the city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas, across the border from Laredo, Texas. These individuals leave the United States through deportations, Title 42 expulsions via the Centers for Disease Control’s (CDC) COVID-19 order, or as part of the Migrant Protection Protocols (MPP), which sends people to Mexico to wait during their U.S. immigration proceedings. Immediately upon entering Nuevo Laredo, these individuals are at high risk for kidnapping and serve as a source of income for organized crime. Migrant kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo are not a new phenomenon. For more than a decade, organized crime in the city has made migrant kidnapping a component of its income generating activities. Members of organized crime kidnap both migrants traveling north for a chance to enter the United States and people sent back to the city. However, recent U.S. policies that return individuals and families to Nuevo Laredo—such as MPP and Title 42—have added new, lucrative populations for the criminal activity. This report focuses on migrant kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo due to the crime’s high frequency and its systematic nature. Migrant kidnappings are largely concentrated in a few sites around the city, and kidnappings follow a similar modus operandi. In fact, the practice is so common that members of organized crime in Nuevo Laredo allegedly refer to migrant kidnappings as “passing through the office.” Migrant kidnappings also commonly take place in other cities along the U.S.-Mexico border, but none follow quite the same systematic pattern as in Nuevo Laredo. To analyze migrant kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo, this report uses a mixed methodology. The analysis is based on an original dataset of 154 separate kidnappings in the city between 2018 and 2021, involving 352 people. This dataset was compiled through open-source records and legal intake forms. It includes 65 kidnapping cases (139 people) that occurred in Nuevo Laredo after CBP returned the individuals through MPP and 16 kidnapping cases (39 people) that occurred after CBP returned the individuals through Title 42. The additional cases involve people who were kidnapped prior to being returned to Mexico and cases where it was not specifically stated that the person was expelled under Title 42 or placed in MPP. The dataset does not attempt to be a comprehensive account of migrant kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo. Rather, it attempts to shed light on recent migrant kidnappings in the city, particularly as U.S. policies continue to send people back. The dataset was supplemented by information obtained through content analysis and semi structured interviews with civil society members, legal service providers, and journalists who are familiar with recent migrant kidnappings in Nuevo Laredo.

Austin, TX> Strauss Center for International Security and Law at The University of Texas at Austin, 2021. 17p.

By Sarah Decker and Anthony Enrique, et al.

“When they took us from the border, we were shackled, head to toe. Then they told us we were going to Louisiana. We all started shaking with fear. We knew we were about to lose our freedom, our rights, even our humanity. We knew we were going to the Black Hole.”

The United States maintains the world’s largest immigrant incarceration regime, imprisoning an average of over 35,000 people a day undergoing administrative proceedings to determine if they will be deported.2 Over 6,000 of those people, a mix of recently-arrived asylum seekers and long-term U.S. residents, are detained in Louisiana, the second-largest state for immigrant detention behind Texas.3 The explosion of immigrant incarceration in Louisiana occurred in the late 2010s and largely benefitted private prison companies, which run eight of the nine immigration jails in the state, profiting off of the abuses described in this report.4

This report documents systemic human rights abuses carried out by or under the supervision of the New Orleans Immigration and Customs Enforcement Field Office (“NOLA ICE”), the federal office that oversees immigration detention in Louisiana. NOLA ICE contracts with two private prison companies and a local sheriff’s office to operate Louisiana’s nine immigration jails.5 Inside those jails, officials rampantly violate detained peoples’ human and civil rights, locking them away in punitive conditions indistinguishable from those in criminal jails and prisons, in some cases for prolonged periods lasting years.6 In some instances, the abuses that detained people describe firsthand in this report meet the definitions of torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment under international human rights treaties to which the United States is a party.7

The information contained in this report comes from two years of visits to nine immigration jails in Louisiana beginning in April 2022, all told comprising interviews with 6,384 people from 59 jail visits and information from seven jail tours conducted by NOLA ICE officials. During these visits, attorneys and legal workers gave Know Your Rights presentations and conducted legal interviews with detained people. Their testimony reveals that NOLA ICE officials routinely violate ICE’s own minimum standards of care and state, federal, and international law and legal standards. Abuses inflicted include:

• DENIAL OF LANGUAGE ACCESS: including interpretation and translation access, resulting in language-related denials of medical and mental health care; due process in preparation of legal materials; and protection against abusive treatment and coercion.

• DEPRIVATION OF HUMAN NECESSITIES: including minimally nutritious food and potable drinking water; sanitary conditions of confinement; access to basic hygiene supplies; protection from extreme temperatures; and access to sunlight and outdoor time.

• ABUSIVE & DISCRIMINATORY TREATMENT: including physical abuse; sexual abuse; torturous solitary confinement; humiliating and degrading speech; and retaliation against and suppression of speech and religious worship protected by the First Amendment.

• MEDICAL ABUSE & NEGLECT: including denial of medical care for chronic, urgent, and emergency conditions; provision of ineffective or non-responsive care for serious health conditions; denial of the right to informed consent to treatment; disruption of ongoing care due to sudden transfers in custody; denial of dental care; denial of reproductive health care; mental health neglect; medical neglect of people with disabilities; and fatal deficiencies in medical care.

Taken together, the abuses inflicted by NOLA ICE officials deprive detained people of due process in their immigration proceedings. In NOLA ICE detention, officials isolate people with viable defenses to deportation from the legal and language resources needed to fairly present their claims. And they use abusive treatment in punitive conditions to coerce people into renouncing those claims and accepting deportation to escape the misery of detention.

The record of documented abuses in NOLA ICE jails predating this report is so extensive that in December 2021, the Department of Homeland Security’s oversight agency, the Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties, opened an investigation into the entire network of NOLA ICE jails, the first-ever field-office wide investigation.8 But as the findings of this report show, oversight bodies have failed to hold NOLA ICE accountable, permitting the continued abuse of detained people with impunity

New Orleans: ACLU of Louisiana, 2024. 108p.

By Human Rights Watch

Adequate housing is an internationally protected human right. But the United States, which has been treating housing primarily as a commodity, is failing to protect this right for large numbers of people, with houselessness a pervasive problem. In the US city of Los Angeles, California, where the monetary value of property has risen to extreme heights while wages at the lower end of the economic spectrum have stagnated for decades, houselessness has exploded into public view. Policymakers addressing the issue publicly acknowledge the necessity of increased housing to solve houselessness, but their primary response on the ground has been criminalization of those without it. The criminalization of houselessness means treating people who live on the streets as criminals and directing resources towards arresting and citing them, institutionalizing them, removing them from visible public spaces, denying them basic services and sanitation, confiscating and destroying their property, and pressuring them into substandard shelter situations that share some characteristics with jails. Criminalization is expensive, but temporarily removes signs of houselessness and extreme poverty from the view of the housed public. Criminalization is ineffective because it punishes people for living in poverty while ignoring and even reaffirming the causes of that poverty embedded in the economic system and the incentives that drive housing development and underdevelopment. Criminalization is cruel. Criminalization effectively destroys lives and property based on race and economic class. It is a set of policies that prioritizes the needs and values of the wealthy, property owners, and business elites, at the expense of the rights of people living in poverty to an adequate standard of living. As a consequence of historical and present policies and practices that discriminate against Black and other BIPOC people, these groups receive the brunt of criminalization. Arrests and citations as the direct mode of criminalization have decreased substantially over the past several years in Los Angeles. But authorities use the threat of arrest to support the relentless taking and destruction of unhoused people’s property through sanitation “sweeps” and people’s removal from certain public spaces. Criminalization has simply taken a different primary form, though punitive criminal enforcement always looms.

Criminalization responds in destructive and ineffective ways to legitimize concerns about the impact of houselessness on individuals and their communities. Rather than improving conditions and leading towards a solution, criminalization diverts vast public resources into moving people from one place to another without addressing the underlying problem. In contrast to criminalization, housing solves houselessness. Policies that have proven effective include the development of affordable housing—with services for those who need them—preserving existing tenancies and providing government subsidies that help people maintain their housing. This report takes an in-depth look at houselessness in Los Angeles and at city policies towards unhoused people in recent years, with reference to historical practices. It looks at criminalization enforced by police and the sanitation department and explores how homeless services agencies and the interim housing and shelter systems sometimes support and cover for that criminalization. The report features the perspectives of people with lived experience on the streets and have directly experienced criminalization in all its forms. Human Rights Watch spoke to over 100 unhoused or formerly unhoused people, whose stories and insights inform every aspect of this report. The report features analysis of data obtained from various city agencies, including the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), Los Angeles Department of Sanitation (LASAN), Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA), and the Mayor’s office, that exposes the extent and futility of policies of criminalization. The report looks at the underlying causes of Los Angeles’ large scale houselessness, primarily the lack of affordable housing. It explains how racist policies over the decades have created a houselessness crisis in the Black community. The report also discusses the proven effectiveness of preserving and providing housing as a solution to houselessness, including examples of people who faced criminalization on the streets and whose lives have dramatically improved once housed. Finally, the report makes recommendations for policies that end criminalization and that move towards solving the crisis and realizing the international human right to housing in Los Angeles.

New York; HRW, 2024. 344p.