Publication: Violence in a Post-Conflict Context : Urban Poor Perceptions from Guatemala
Date
2001
ISSN
Published
2001
Author(s)
Moser, Caroline
McIlwaine, Cathy
Abstract
The study documents how people living in
poor urban communities in Guatemala perceive violence.
Specifically, it identifies the categories of violence
affecting poor communities, the costs of different types of
violence, the effects on violence on social capital, the
interventions employed by people to deal with violence, and
the causes and effects of social exclusion. The study
develops a violence-capital-exclusion nexus which is an
analytical framework linking different types of violence
both to society's capital and to the exclusion of its
poor population. To incorporate the rarely heard voices of
the poor, the study uses participatory urban appraisal
methodology, which emphasizes local knowledge and enables
local people to analyze the problems they face and identify
their own solutions. Local-level recommendations for
reducing violence can be summed up in terms of six
priorities: Rebuild trust in the police and judicial system.
Attack the problem of alcoholism. Reduce society's
tolerance for intrafamily violence. Prevent the spread of
drug consumption. Transform maras (violent youth gangs) from
perverse to productive social organizations. Develop
mechanisms to build sustainable community-based membership organizations.
Citation
“Moser, Caroline; McIlwaine, Cathy. 2001. Violence in a Post-Conflict Context : Urban Poor Perceptions from Guatemala. Conflict prevention and post-conflict
reconstruction series;. © Washington, DC: World Bank. http://openknowledge.worldbank.org/entities/publication/61031910-91d2-5476-bd47-4ba0e3035609 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO.”