On March 1, four Latin American scholars were invited to share their research on organized crime, victimhood, and legislation at the Columbia School of International and Public Affairs.

On Friday, March 1, the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) hosted a panel discussion entitled “New Perspectives on Crime, Violence, and Victims in Latin America” to understand the landscape of organized violence through the perspective of victims. Moderated by Eduardo Moncada from Barnard College, the event featured presentations from four scholars to analyze one of the most pressing challenges in Latin America today.

The event opened with a presentation by Argentine Studies Visiting Fellow Martina Lassalle from the Universidad de Buenos Aires. Her work focuses on the varying responses to lethal violence in Buenos Aires. Although violent death in Argentina is usually thought to be linked to robberies, the most frequent circumstance for homicides is interpersonal conflict, accounting for 30% of total homicides. Lassalle noted that, according to the statistics, most of these events occur between young men of lower social class and formal education, and they are not premeditated.

In 2022, interpersonal homicides and other lethal crimes were given an average sentence of 11.8 years in prison while the maximum sentence in the penal crime scale goes up to 25 years. Today, non-lethal crimes like robberies are usually given a significantly longer sentence, and the discrepancy between these figures is apparent. According to Lassalle, crimes where property is at stake (robberies) receive a much harsher punishment than crimes where human life is at stake (homicides).

Lassalle posed several possible reasons for this disparity, and she made an important connection between this data and the overrepresentation of people from lower social classes in prison. While victims of robberies tend to vary in their socioeconomic status, victims of homicides are largely members of lower social classes. If these lethal crimes received milder punishments, it is because violent behavior is seen as more “common” in young men due to sexist and classist assumptions. This mindset, Lassalle claimed, ultimately stems from a justice system that responds to crimes after they are committed rather than solving the issue of violence at its root. 

Building on the idea of administrative response to crime, Paul Hazathy elaborated on the relationship between criminality and executive control over the police. Serving on the National Scientific and Technical Council at Argentina and a professor at the Universidad Nacional de Córdoba, Hazathy specializes in researching the structure of police and courts at a subnational level. His work hinges on the premise that controlling corruption and drug trafficking organizations ultimately depends upon the capacity of the state to respond to crime.

Comparing Córdoba, Santa Fe, and Mendoza’s crime rates side by side, he noticed that Santa Fe contains the highest number of homicides but also the greatest increase in active police force. So why do different provinces develop different approaches to controlling their police? Hazathy claimed that in most cases, formal or administrative police control occurs in instances where there is tension between the governmental and police systems.

This can occur during party switches or in times where there is strong popular opposition to the governing party. In cases of social crisis or riots, governing systems may also feel the need to organize their police force to tackle organized crime in the area. In addition to analyzing the role of judicial and administrative systems in Latin American violence, Hazathy argued it is crucial also to consider the perspectives of victims and community members. 

In her presentation, Veronica Zubillaga of the Universidad Simón Bolívar shifted the focus to a group without much social visibility: women. In the last few years, she has dedicated her career to understanding the intersections of urban violence, gender, and public policy. “Where do we see women within standard studies on criminal violence?” Zubillaga asked. Latin American women, as integral community members in organizing daily life, have an often overlooked impact on the relationship between organized crime groups.

Zubillaga’s recent research looks at the micropolitics of the Caracas barrio, a neighborhood in Venezuela, to examine political survival strategies for women in the context of armed violence. While some women take refuge and may send their children to other communities for safety, others collaborate with armed actors they are related to. Women also use negotiation and the role of “motherhood” in a strategic way to control the actions of organized crime groups.

In regions with long histories of civic organization, women also use gossip as a subtle strategy of resistance. Often referred to as a “weapon of the weak” within anthropological disciplines, gossip can be used as a threat to force organized crime groups to limit violence. Some groups of women threaten to ruin reputations over gossip, which can be highly detrimental to armed actors. Zubillaga noted it is also possible to reach ceasefire conditions between groups using tactics of gossip and negotiation.

To close the presentation, Professor Sarah Daly of Columbia University’s Political Science Department explored the seeming intractability of criminal violence in Latin America. Why does this region contain 14% percent of the world’s population and 40% of the world’s homicides? Daly pointed to the framework of “homicidal ecologies,” which explains the factors that may contribute to the high crime rate. Although there is much variance at the regional and subnational level, many Latin American nations have high levels of socioeconomic variation, rapid urbanization, and a sprawling drug consumer market, three of the factors Daly described. Additionally, proximity to the United States and the US’s largely ineffective narcotics policy may contribute to this phenomenon.

Because the differences in structural features vary so much across Latin America, it is difficult to predict when and where violence will erupt. According to her research, routes with high amounts of trafficking, low government involvement, and high numbers of crime groups may increase the likelihood of violence in an area. However, Daly emphasized that this is an avoidable issue to some extent: collaboration between governments and crime groups can effectively limit violence.

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