InSight Crime has made it a priority to investigate the overlap of organized crime and gender-based violence. Investigator Laura N. Ávila spoke on the topic at the launch of a research project by the United Nations Development Programme.

Ávila described a need to understand the ways violence is used against women, girls and LGBTQ people with reference to the power dynamics and inequalities of the criminal underworld. It is partially through this prism that InSight Crime is investigating the mass exodus from Venezuela where women and children are especially vulnerable to exploitation and recruitment by criminal groups involved in human and drug trafficking.

See our coverage of gender and organized crime >

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