ABSTRACT
People live in a world where high levels of urban violence generate public anxiety and government concern, particularly in cities of the global south. This is true not only in unstable and politicized contexts as the Middle East or Africa, but is also true in many regions of newly democratic Latin America. In this region, political stability is not in question but economic liberalization and globalization have reduced employment opportunities, increased income inequalities, scaled back social programs, and curtailed government responsibility for public goods, including housing, in ways that have increased citizen vulnerability and crime. Globalization expands commodity trade beyond national borders that privileged transnational connections among licit and illicit activities and empowered the perpetrators of violence. In Latin America, violence tends to concentrate in cities where unemployment and underemployment combine with a history of informality to create socio-spatial and economic inequality.
