What is the nature of Central American gang violence and have attempts to reduce it been successful? Urban violence is a major preoccupation of policymakers, planners and development practitioners, but it is a complex phenomenon. This article argues that repressive first-generation approaches have tended to radicalise gangs and push them towards organised crime. Meanwhile, preventive second-generation interventions have been credited with modest success, but have yielded more rhetorical advances than actual reductions in gang violence.
In an effort to deal with gangs, policymakers have sought to link them with the rise in urban violence and disorder more generally. But urban gang violence in Central America cannot be conceived as a simple function of rational choice or endogenous factors; it is ultimately embedded in a wider crisis of exclusion and spatial segregation.
Heavy-handed first-generation approaches to gang violence in Central America combine aggressive, militarised crackdown operations with increased penalties to deter gang membership. While official reports claim reductions in criminal violence, most evidence indicates that these effects are temporary and tenuous.
- Repressive tactics often encourage members to become more organised and violent, precipitating tit-for-tat violence. They also tend to exacerbate the stigmatisation of gang members, preventing meaningful reintegration into society.
- In light of this criticism, there has been much attention on second-generation ‘friendly hand’ responses. In theory, these focus not just on symptoms but on the risks of gang violence. They place greater emphasis on generating compliance through incentives and feature a range of activities from weapons collection to education initiatives.
- There is piecemeal evidence of discursive and practical gains in relation to second-generation responses. But the outcomes of these efforts in terms of reducing gang violence are far from clear.
Gangs constitute a real but much misunderstood feature of urban violence in Central America. Urban violence is highly heterogeneous, multi-causal and not readily amenable to simple solutions. Interventions to promote security often overlook underlying determinants of urban violence. It is important to consider that:
- Gangs are heterogeneous and linked more to localised insecurity than to the transnational menace ascribed to them by the media and some policymakers. A growing number of researchers highlight factors such as exclusion, marginalisation, rapid social change and lack of opportunities in the emergence of gangs in Central America.
- The design and implementation of social policy will inevitably mirror the political leanings and economic dynamics of the context. The biggest obstacle to developing a coherent approach to urban gang violence in Central America is the deeply entrenched oligarchic nature of societies in the region.
- Visible crackdowns on gangs have enabled Central American governments to avoid tackling more tricky social and economic issues. Gangs have become convenient scapegoats on which to blame wider problems and enable those in power to maintain an unequal status quo.
