The Problem with Templates: Learning from Organic Gang-Related Violence Reduction

Abstract

This article considers what demobilisation, disarmament, and reintegration (DDR) programmes might learn from research on gangs and the problems associated with government-instituted 'wars on gangs' putatively aimed at reducing or fighting gang-related violence. It begins by considering interventions associated with the global war on gangs, and compares their underlying premises and practices with those of DDR programmes while highlighting how both are plagued with problems associated with drawing on de-contextualized templates. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research carried out in Nicaragua and South Africa, the article then goes on to explore why individuals leave gangs, focusing in particular on the more organic processes that deplete gangs of their members, as well as the consequences that the different possible occupational trajectories of ex-gang members can have for patterns of violence. These offer a number of potential lessons for DDR programmes, particularly with regard to reducing violence in a realistic and sustainable manner. stability

The reintegration of ex-combatants and post-conflict violence. An analysis of municipal crime levels in Colombia

“…Barron (2014) explains post-conflict violence in Indonesia as a legacy of conflict, with a political economy of violence, elite struggles for power and limited state capacity to maintain order. After the signing of a peace agreement in 1987, Nicaragua witnessed a dramatic increase in urban crime attributed to high unemployment rates, in particular among urban youths, low levels of social capital and existing drug trafficking routes (Brune and Bossert 2009;Chamorro 2015;Marti Puig 2002, Rodgers 2002Rodgers and Jensen 2015).…”

L’ordinaire de la sortie de guerre

“…], 2010 ;Mac Ginty, 2010 ;Suhrke, Berdal, 2013). Ils ont également saisi la façon dont les situations de « post-conflit » sont affectées par l'intervention internationale 3 , qui impose ses « bonnes pratiques », ses « templates » et ses cadres d'analyse (Pouligny, 2004 ;Lefranc, 2007Lefranc, , 2008Autesserre, 2014 ;Rodgers, Jensen, 2015). Ces travaux posent ainsi les fondations d'une approche des sorties de conflit par les usages et les pratiques, tournant donc le dos à une science normative voulant endosser une approche « problem solving » (Pugh, 2013).…”

Beyond Gang Truces and Mano Dura Policies: Towards Substitutive Security Governance in Latin America

“…Yet, apart from noteworthy exceptions on the pages of this journal (Muggah and O'Donnell 2015;Rodgers and Jensen 2015), little attention has been paid to what I call 'substitutive' approaches towards gangs, which are intended to replace the different functions gangs fulfil for various stakeholders -namely their sponsors, their members, and the community in which they are nested. While Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration (DDR) programmes can help replace the patron-client relations between gang members and their sponsors, Armed Violence Reduction and Prevention (AVRP) efforts aim at reducing the appeal for at-risk youth to join such groups in the first place.…”