Offenders’ Choices in Gang Extortion Rackets in El Salvador

• In Event: Poster Session I

Abstract

The current paper investigates the execution styles of opportunistic and systematic extortionists in El Salvador, shedding light on the acquisitive offending patterns of the Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Street gangs, credited for making Central America’s northern triangle the most violent region of the world. Postulates from the rational choice framework guide the analytic approach that was utilized. Offender choices related to the tasks in the crime commission process of extortion were used to differentiate extortionist styles. The study examines 53 extortion decision variables extracted from a 2015 business victimization survey done in El Salvador. Borrowing analytical techniques from the offender profiling literature, offender choices were examined through a multidimensional scaling procedure. Results reveal that the co-occurrence of perpetrators’ decisions shape thematic clusters congruent with the choice-structuring properties that attract each extortionist type. Policy and research implications are discussed.

Author

• Carlos E. Ponce, Simon Fraser University