This article examines police violence against organized criminal groups (OCGs) in Rio de Janeiro. It offers a theory about five types of OCG regimes—Insurgent, Bandit, Symbiotic, Predatory, and Split—and how police intervention varies across these contexts.

Criminal Regimes & Police Responses: The study reveals that different OCG regimes react distinctly to state interventions:

* Insurgent: Confronts the state directly.

* Bandit: Evades integration with state actors.

* Symbiotic: Collaborates heavily with local authorities and communities.

* Predatory: Dominates territory strictly, often through force.

* Split: Faces intense rivalry from other criminal groups.

Methodology: Evidence comes from a multimethod approach, including:

* Quasi-experimental statistical analyses.

* Automated text analysis of official documents and social media posts.

* Extensive qualitative field research in several favelas.

* A large-N survey conducted across multiple intervention zones.

Findings: The article demonstrates how the implementation of Rio's 'Pacifying Police Units' (UPPs) resulted in dramatically different security outcomes depending on whether OCGs were confrontational or collaborative with state actors.