Crime, Violence, and Community-Based Prevention in Honduras
Violent crime has emerged as a growing development challenge, affecting large segments of societies, and taking a severe toll on economic development. In many high crime environments, weak institutions, fiscal constraints, and political resistance...
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| Language: | English en_US |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2015
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/2015/07/24746742/crime-violence-community-based-prevention-honduras-research-report http://hdl.handle.net/10986/22378 |
| Summary: | Violent crime has emerged as a growing
development challenge, affecting large segments of
societies, and taking a severe toll on economic development.
In many high crime environments, weak institutions, fiscal
constraints, and political resistance have undermined the
effectiveness of development programs and threatened their
sustainability. The World Bank has begun to confront this
challenge. The country of Honduras is the most violent in
the world as measured by its homicide rate, which reached
90.4 per 100,000 inhabitants in 2012. This report presents
the findings of a study of crime dynamics and prevention
practices focused around a comparison of nine neighborhoods
in three of the most violent cities in Honduras: La Ceiba,
El Progreso, and Choloma. The research revealed that
although the transnational drug trade, economic downturn,
and political crisis have deepened the country’s
vulnerability, some neighborhoods have successfully
prevented crime. Drawing from extensive qualitative research
in these neighborhoods, the study identified practices that
communities pursue to prevent violence through collective
responses. It also examined the characteristics of
communities, societal factors, and institutional context
that have enabled or constrained these responses. The
research points to measures that can be built upon, scaled
up, and tested through future research and programming to
strengthen community-based crime prevention. It illustrates
how deep examination of the dynamics of insecurity - and the
ways communities manage it - can inform efforts to improve
public safety in violence-prone countries. |
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