Unsettling Equilibria and the Need for Protection: The Emergence of Vigilante Groups in Mexico

• In Event: Causes, Consequences, and Responses to Criminal Violence

Brief Overview

We explore how changing dynamics of criminal violence shape the emergence of armed self-defense groups in Mexico. We argue that self-defense groups are the outcome of unsettled equilibria of interaction between crucial actor-dyads.

Authors

• Juan Masullo, Leiden University

• Moshe Bem Hamo Yeger, University of Oxford

• Mariano Sanchez Talanquer, Cornell University