Territories of Violence State, Marginal Youth, and Public Security in Honduras

by Gutiérrez Rivera, Lirio

• ISBN13: 9781137027948
• ISBN10: 1137027940
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2013-05-22
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan

Summary

Territories of Violence examines the persistence of social violence and public insecurity in contemporary Honduras. Using a spatial perspective, the author looks at the Honduran state's security polices - known as Mano Dura - and the challenges authorities face in decreasing violence, delinquency, and crime in marginal neighborhoods, which are controlled by the maras, Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street Gang, and certain regions, due to the presence of organized crime. She argues that security policies fail not only because of the weakness of Honduras' state institutions, but also because of the state's historical difficulty producing and ordering political territory and space, which has led to the emergence of territories of violence.

Author Biography

Lirio Gutiérrez Rivera is an Anthropologist and Political Scientist. She was Postdoctoral Researcher at the desigualdades Research Network and at the Center of Area Studies and was Adjunct Lecturer at the Institute for Latin American Studies at the Freie Universität Berlin, Germany.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. State, Space and Territory
2. Territorializing the State
3. Violence and Crime
4. Marginal Youth and the Maras
5. Public Security and Policies
6. Alternatives: Above and Below
7. Geographies of Violence
Epilogue