Victor Porto Almeida

Biography

CHASE DTP (Consortium for the Humanities and the Arts South-East England AHRC funded Doctoral Training Partnership) Scholar 2021-2024 Chevening Alumnus 2015-2016, a scholarship funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office - FCDO Victor is a PhD student in Criminology at the Department of Sociology from the University of Essex. Before starting his PhD in the United Kingdom, Victor had a solid career in Manaus, a big city located in the middle of the Brazilian Amazon forest. His previous experience in the Brazilian Federal Prosecution Service in Manaus between 2016-2019 as a legal advisor was fundamental for investigations that untangled environmental criminal organisations involved in wildlife smuggling, deforestation, arson, invasion of public lands, modern slavery, money laundering, land contamination, unlawful exploitation of minerals, unlawful use of chemicals, illegal hunting and fishing, corruption, among other crimes prescribed in the Brazilian legislation. Victor has previously studied in Glasgow, Scotland, between 2015 and 2016, where he pursued his MSc in Transnational Crime, Justice and Security at the University of Glasgow. His dissertation was a quantitative study about the effectiveness of an initiative from the Brazilian Federal Prosecution Service to address deforestation and modern slavery in the Amazon. Victor also holds a Bachelor of Laws awarded by the State of Amazonas Baptist College (2009-2013) and is a registered lawyer at the Order of Attorneys of Brazil. He participated in state and national level competitions during his undergraduate degree, where he was awarded for his written and oral Brazilian Portuguese skills. During his undergraduate, he had the opportunity to work in placements at the Brazilian Federal Justice and the Federal Prosecution Service. He worked in the Environmental Office in both posts, where he developed his interest in this subject. In his placement at the Federal Prosecution Service, he made a significant contribution to the office in big cases, such as identifying farmers involved in greenwashing of beef produced in illegal areas and the illegal fishing of pink dolphins, an endangered species.

Qualifications

• MSc in Transnational Crime, Justice and Security University of Glasgow (2016)

• Bachelor of Laws State of Amazonas Baptist College (2014)

Thesis