In this global justice opus, Haugen, founder and president of the International Justice Mission (IJM), and Boutros, a federal prosecutor with the Department of Justice, argue that the daily threat of predatory violence against the poor worldwide undermines and even reverses efforts to lift people out of extreme poverty: “endemic to being poor is a vulnerability to violence.”
The opening chapters narrate a global heart of darkness on the front lines of human trafficking, sexual violence, acute poverty, and forced labor. The Locust Effect, with at times mind-numbing statistics, portrays public justice as the “the most fundamental and the most broken system” in a developing world full of struggling systems. But light ultimately dawns with reminders “from history of how diverse developing societies reversed spirals of chaotic violence and established levels of safety and order once considered unimaginable,” exploring concrete examples of real hope emerging today, including projects from IJM and other NGOs. (Oxford University Press)
About the Author
Robert N. Hosack is Executive Editor for Baker Publishing Group, and he is a member of Church of the Servant CRC in Grand Rapids, Mich.
