Malicious Peace: Violent Criminal Organizations, National Governments and Truces

Paul Rexton Kan

doi:10.6000/1929-4409.2014.03.11

Authors

Paul Rexton Kan US Army War College

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.6000/1929-4409.2014.03.11

Keywords:

Gangs, truces, Latin America, Caribbean, violence

Abstract

Truces among violent criminal organizations, like gangs and organized crime syndicates, which occur with national government support fall into a unique gap between understandings of crime and internal state violence. Recent national level gang truces in Central America and the Caribbean fall into this gap; the truces are designed to lower homicide rates and move some members of criminal groups towards legal activities. However, there is precious little research examining multiple truces in different countries as a group so that lessons may be drawn for other countries suffering from high levels of violence at the hands of criminal organizations. With violent criminal organizations as the main threat to the national security of many states, shedding light on how to reduce extreme levels of violence is vital. Close examination of attempted and implemented truces in Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Trinidad and Tobago reveals that a constellation of factors leads national governments to be receptive to such agreements and violent criminal groups to accede to them.

References

Archibold, Randal. 2012. “Gangs’ Truce Buys El Salvador a Tenuous Peace.” New York Times, August 27. Retrieved March 5, 2014 (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/28/world/americas/in-el-salvador-gang-truce-brings-tenuous-peace.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0).
BBC. 2013. “Honduran Gangs Salvatrucha and 18 Street Announce Truce.” May 4. Retrieved February 5, 2014 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-22694989)
Cotton, Paul. 1992. “Violence decreases with gang truce.” Journal of the American Medical Association 268 (4).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1001/jama.1992.03490040011002
Cronin, Audrey Kurth. 2006. “How Al Qaeda Ends.” International Security 31: 7–48.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1162/isec.2006.31.1.7
Curry, D.G., Decker, S., and Egley, A. 2002. “Gang involvement and delinquency in a middle school population.” Justice Quarterly 19(2).
http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/07418820200095241
Greig, J. Michael and Regan, Patrick. 2008. “When Do They Say Yes? An Analysis of the Willingness to Offer and Accept Mediation in Civil Wars.” International Studies Quarterly 52 (4): 759-781.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2478.2008.00525.x
Hughes, Lorine and Short, Jr., James. 2005. “Disputes Involving Youth Street Gang Members: Micro-Social Contexts.” Criminology 43(1): 43-76.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.0011-1348.2005.00002.x
Kahn, Carrie. 2013. Honduras Claims Title of World’s Murder Capital, National Public Radio, June 12. Retrieved February 5, 2014 (http://www.npr.org/blogs/parallels/2013/06/13/190683502/honduras-claims-unwanted-title-of-worlds-murder-capital)
Katz, Charles M., Maguire, Edward R., & Choate, David. 2011. “A Cross-National Comparison of Gangs in the United States and Trinidad and Tobago.” International Criminal Justice Review 21(3): 243-262.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1057567711417179
Kennedy, David. 2011. Don’t Shoot. New York: Bloomsbury.
Klein, Malcolm and Maxson, Cheryl. 2006. Street Gang Patterns and Policies. New York: Oxford University Press.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195163445.001.0001
Maguire, Edward. 2013. “Research, Theory and Speculation on Gang Truces” Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., 30 October 2013.
Montenegro, Alvaro. 2013. “OEA Promueve una Tregua entre Maras en Guatemala.” El Periodico, July 5. Retrieved February 7 (http://www.elperiodico.com.gt/es/20130705/pais/230642/).
Muggah, Robert, Carpenter, Ami and McDougal, Topher. 2013. “The Inconvenient Truth about Gang Truces.” Insightcrime.org. Retrieved January 25, 2014 (http://www.insightcrime.org/ news-analysis/the-inconvenient-truth-about-gang-truces-in-the-americas).
Ordog, Gary, Shoemaker, William, Wasserberger, Jonathan and Bishop, Michael. 1995. “Gunshot Wounds seen at a county hospital before and after a riot and gang truce: Part two.” Journal of Trauma-Injury Infection & Critical Care 38(3): 417-419.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1097/00005373-199503000-00024
Renteria, Nelson. 2012. El Salvador Heralds First Murder-free Day in Three Years, Reuters, April 15. Retrieved January 25, 2104 (http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/04/15/us-salvador-murder-idUSBRE83E0KX20120415).
Sherwell, Philip. 2013. “Welcome to Honduras, the Most Dangerous Country on the Planet.” The Telegraph, November 16. Retrieved March 5, 2014 (http://www.telegraph.co.uk/ news/worldnews/centralamericaandthecaribbean/honduras/10454018/Welcome-to-Honduras-the-most-dangerous-country-on-the-planet.html).
Whitfield, Theresa. 2013. “Mediating Criminal Violence.” The Oslo Forum Papers, June 2013. Retrieved March 8, 2014 (http://www.hdcentre.org/uploads/tx_news/Mediating-Criminal-Violence.pdf)
World Bank. Poverty in Guatemala. Washington, DC: World Bank.