New perspectives on crime and violence in Latin America: Patterns, trends and new developments in recent publications.

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Abstract

The authors of this roundtable will present and discuss new findings and theoretical approaches for the study of criminality and violence in the region. Recent publications (Bergman´s “More money more crime”, Duran Martinez´s "The politics of drug violence”, Lessing´s "Making peace in drug wars"), are part of an emerging corpus of literature that do not only describe the trends and patterns of Latin America rising violence, but develop a new research agenda to account for these new developments. This session challenges narrow one country or single event narratives or cases in search for encompassing interpretation and/or comparative analyses to explain the diverse outcomes of one of the most critical social and political problem that most Latin American countries have faced over the last two decades. It will particularly highlight the diverse research methods used, how the authors overcame problems with data, and the new questions these current research agenda arises.

Sub Track

• Violence and Insecurities

Session Organizer

• Marcelo Bergman, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero

Chair

• Graham Denyer Willis, University of Cambridge

Presenters

• Marcelo Bergman, Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero

• Benjamin Lessing, University of Chicago

• Angélica Durán Martínez, University of Massachusetts-Lowell