ABSTRACT
Although gangs are not a new feature of the violence panorama in Latin America, they have come to the fore in an unprecedented manner in the post-Cold War period, to the extent that they are now widely considered to epitomize the dynamics of contemporary regional brutality. The multifaceted and epiphenomenal nature of gangs is the principle reason why they have become a major focus of much contemporary research on violence in Latin America, whether directly or indirectly. Although gangs can be traced back to the 1940s and 1950s in Central America – and the region’s industrialization and concomitant urbanization – the first primary investigation of the phenomenon was not carried out until the late 1980s. The evolution of gangs in both Central America and Brazil over the past three decades clearly highlight the constantly changing dynamics of contemporary Latin American violence.
