Encounters with Violence in Latin America: Urban Poor Perceptions from Colombia and Guatemala

Latin America is one of the world's fastest-developing regions, yet also a hub area for crime and violence, where the links between social exclusion, inequality, and violence are clearly visible. Drug crime, robbery, international trafficking, gang violence, and domestic violence destabilize countries' economies and harm their people and social structures. Encounters With Violence in Latin America, written by specialists on development in the region, takes examples from Colombia and Guatemala to create a complete theory of how and why violence takes place. Considering the various types of political, social, and economic violence that afflict communities, and asking local people about their own experiences as mediated by family, gender, ethnicity, and age, it measures the costs and consequences of violence, giving a voice to those whose daily lives are dominated by widespread aggression.

Caroline O. N. Moser is currently Senior Research Associate at the Overseas Development Institute and Adjunct Professor at the New School University, New York.