Joana Monteiro

Joana Monteiro’s unique career as a scholar and public servant makes her one of the leading voices in debates on organized crime, policing, and the rule of law in Brazil. Academically, she is a prominent quantitative scholar who has identified critical causal impacts of urban violence and policy initiatives. Monteiro has also brought her passion for rigorous research into the public sector. As Director of the State of Rio de Janeiro’s Institute of Public Security, responsible for collection and dissemination of official statistics on crime, violence, and policing, Monteiro produced innovative analyses and data interfaces for public use of ISP data. She then founded a Research Unit within the State Attorney General Office, which produced a series of innovative mappings and analyses of Rio’s organized criminal groups and their territorial control and clashes over favelas. Monteiro recently founded the Center for Applied Research in Public Security at the Getúlio Vargas Foundation, where she is a Professor of Public Policy.