The Locust Effect: Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence

The first book to focus on the central role of violence in perpetuating poverty, aruging that if people aren't safe, nothing else matters. Featuring real-world stories ranging from Thailand to Bolivia to India to Nigeria that vividly depict how violence undercuts antipoverty efforts, authors Haugen and Boutros draw from their experience running the International Justice Mission to show that ground-up efforts to reform legal and public justice systems can generate real, positive results.

Gary A. Haugen is founder and president of International Justice Mission, a global human rights agency that protects the poor from violence. The largest organization of its kind, IJM has partnered with law enforcement to rescue thousands of victims of violence. Haugen was Director of the U.N. investigation in the aftermath of the Rwandan genocide, and has been recognized by the U.S. State Department as a Trafficking in Persons "Hero^" -- the U.S. government's highest honor for anti-slavery leadership.

Victor Boutros is a federal prosecutor who investigates and tries nationally significant cases of police misconduct, hate crimes, and international human trafficking around the country on behalf of the U.S. Department of Justice. He is also a member of the Justice Department's Human Trafficking Prosecution Unit, which consolidates the expertise of some of nation's top human trafficking prosecutors and enhances the federal government's ability to identify and prosecute large human trafficking networks.