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The reading time for The Locust Effect varies, but it typically takes several hours. The Blinkist summary can be read in 15 minutes.

Who is the author of The Locust Effect?

The authors of The Locust Effect are Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros.

Society & Culture

The Locust Effect Book Summary - The Locust Effect Book explained in key points

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The Locust Effect summary

Name: The Locust Effect
Rating: 4.5 (24 reviews)
Author: Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros

Gary A. Haugen Victor Boutros

Why the End of Poverty Requires the End of Violence

4.5 (24 ratings)

15 mins

Brief summary

The Locust Effect by Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros illustrates how violence and corruption cripple developing countries, impeding economic growth and poverty reduction. The book offers a fresh way of thinking about foreign aid and international development.

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Class Crises & Scandals

Table of Contents

The Locust Effect
Summary of 7 key ideas

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Key idea 1 of 7

What’s in it for me? Grasp why you need to fight violence to overcome poverty.

Today, many people in developing countries are living in fear – and no amount of food, medical care or education is going to change that. They fear the criminal violence that’s rampant in their neighborhoods.

Violence traumatizes millions of individuals and can stunt the economic growth of entire nations. Like locusts, criminals attack the poorest, effectively devouring and destroying whichever structures aid organizations are trying to build up.

So why is it that many governments fail to keep that violence at bay – and what can developmental organizations do to help them? These are two of the questions you’ll find answered in these blinks.

You’ll also find out

why enterprises in poor countries often pay huge amounts of money to take their causes to private courts;
the historical reason policing in India is so fundamentally different from police work in the United Kingdom; and
how one short-term project in the Philippines achieved a massive reduction in commercial child abuse.

Violence has a big impact on the populations and economies of developing countries.

Many people believe that impoverished communities are the root of society’s problems. Wealthier classes even tend to fear them. But low-income communities aren’t the real threat – that comes from those who are violent toward them.

Violence is the most destructive force in society. It’s worse than any natural disaster, even hurricanes.

Hurricane Stan, for instance, took a big toll on Guatemala’s economy when it hit in 2005, and was widely regarded as a huge disaster. However, criminal violence costs Guatemala roughly twice as much each year. It accounts for a 7.3 percent loss in GDP, according to World Bank development reports.

Violent crime has an even greater cost in countries like Colombia or El Salvador, where it’s said to reduce economic growth by as much as 25 percent every year.

Violence harms a nation’s economy in a number of ways. For one, it cuts down the workforce by rendering healthy people incapable of work.

Disability Adjusted Life Years measures this problem by estimating how many years of work are lost because of violence. Every year, nine million Disability Adjusted Life Years are lost just due to women being raped or abused.

This has a big impact in places like Africa, where 80 percent of the farm work is done by women. Violence can severely cut food production in some of the world’s poorest regions.

And of course, violence has an even greater impact on the victims. This is especially disastrous in developing countries like Ethiopia. A 2009 Human Rights report in Ethiopia showed that victims of violence suffer higher rates of depression, substance abuse and suicide.

Law enforcement fails the poor in many developing countries.

Imagine you’re being assaulted, then the police show up and side with your assailant. Sadly, this is a common occurrence in many parts of the world.

Poor people lack even the most basic protection in many of the world’s developing countries. In fact, recent UN studies have found that law enforcement systems in developing countries are often so corrupt that poor communities live completely outside protection of the law.

The police and the justice systems are often dysfunctional in developing countries.

You wouldn’t go to the local butcher if you needed emergency heart surgery. Sadly, this is what law enforcement is like in a lot of developing countries: police are untrained and ignorant about what they’re tasked with doing.

In fact, a 2009 Human Rights Watch report found that 85 percent of police officers in India are constables, meaning they’re largely untrained in dealing with criminal cases. Constabulary staff in India only receive a few months of military training and virtually no training in law.

Developing countries have inherited colonial justice systems designed to protect the elite.

Phrases like “Let them eat cake” or “Throw them into the dungeons” might evoke memories of bygone eras in European countries, but in their former colonies, the legacy lives on.

Post-colonial countries typically still have criminal justice systems that harken back to the colonial era. The very concept of the “police” was created by the British in the mid-eighteenth century century when soldiers and guards were replaced by Home Secretary Robert Peel with a new kind of civilian police. These early police officers were unarmed, uniformed, and gradually won public support through their efforts to suppress crime.

Private justice systems are overtaking public justice systems, widening the gap between rich and poor.

When the police force doesn’t serve you, you look for other means of protection if you can afford it.

That’s why parallel systems of private security have arisen in the developing world. In some places, the private security industry is experiencing an unprecedented boom.

Very little developmental aid has been invested in criminal justice systems, but this might change.

What do you do if a plague of locusts destroys all of a country’s crops? It wouldn’t help to just replant them – the locusts would only eat those crops too. You have to fight the locusts themselves.

Violence and crime work the same way. We’ve seen how dysfunctional justice systems hold back the poor and leave them vulnerable to criminal attacks – this means that any aid money poured into those dysfunctional systems is wasted. If you send more aid in, crime will only devour it faster.

The Project Lantern initiative illustrates how NGOs can improve criminal justice systems.

When it comes to fighting crime in developing countries, aid organizations can’t replace domestic law enforcement. They can advise and support national law enforcement agencies, however.

An NGO called International Justice Mission oversees one such program in Cebu, Philippines. It’s called Project Lantern, and it aims to protect children from sex trafficking. Social workers, lawyers and police officers worked with local authorities for four years to build structures to protect local children.

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What is The Locust Effect about?

The Locust Effect (2014) argues that foreign aid is only useful to developing countries if their impoverished citizens have protection from violence and crime. Without this, aid money is wasted because neither individuals nor businesses are safe to grow. Financial donations should aim to strengthen national criminal justice systems, so countries can serve themselves in the long run.

The Locust Effect Review

The Locust Effect (2014) exposes the hidden crisis of violence and its impact on global poverty. Here's why this book is worth reading:

Offers a shocking revelation of how violence undermines development efforts, making it a crucial book for anyone interested in social justice.
Uncovers compelling stories and case studies from around the world, giving readers a firsthand look at the devastating consequences of unchecked violence.
Challenges readers to rethink their understanding of poverty and its causes, paving the way for a more holistic approach to addressing global challenges.

Best quote from The Locust Effect

Without the world noticing, the locusts of common, criminal violence are right now ravaging the lives and dreams of billions of our poorest neighbors.

—Gary A. Haugen and Victor Boutros

Who should read The Locust Effect?

Students of political science, international relations and foreign policy
Donors and sponsors looking to help the developing world
Anyone interested in global development

About the Author

Gary A. Haugen is a lawyer and the CEO of International Justice Mission, an NGO that supports local authorities in protecting the poor against crime. Victor Boutros is a US Department of Justice prosecutor who investigates human trafficking and hate crimes. Haugen and Boutros also co-authored And Justice for All: Enforcing Human Rights for the World’s Poor.

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