To Prevent, Reduce, or Stop Violence - The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation 2016 Report
←
→
Page content transcription
If your browser does not render page correctly, please read the page content below
to Prevent, Reduce, or Stop Violence The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation 2016 Report
Three Things That Work 2016 Report of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
Three Things That Work 2016 Report of the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation
© 2016 by The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Design: Gina Rossi Photography Credits 7: Victoria Shuster 9: ChiChi Ubiña 26: AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo 27: Ana Villarreal (painting by José López) (top); Ricardo Lazcano (bottom) 32: John Jay College 37: Patrick McMullan 38: Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/ Getty Images 39: Lambeth Palace Library 40: AP Photo/John Minchillo 46–47: Salzburg Global Seminar/ Ela Grieshaber 50: AP Photo/Times Herald- Record, Tom Bushey 65: National Maritime Museum, Greenwich, London 71: Chicago Tribune
Contents 7 Foreword
9 President’s Statement
11 How to Apply
14 Research Grants
18 Dissertation
Fellowships
22 HFG Research on Drug
Violence in Mexico and
Central America
30 Program Activities
48 Three Things That
Work to Prevent,
Reduce, or Stop
Violence
73 Research Publications
79 Directors, Officers,
and Staff
80 Financial Data
Foreword
Peter Lawson-Johnston
Chairman of the Board
It was just over a decade ago that Josiah Bunting Lois Rice joined our board in 1990, and the tenure
III assumed the presidency of our foundation, of Lewis Lapham and Gillian Lindt began in 1997.
dedicated to Harry Frank Guggenheim’s quest to We were most fortunate to have their counsel for
understand the causes of the harm we do each so long.
other and what might serve to diminish it. In the Our pleasure in these superb additions to our
five years since our last report, our board, already board and gratitude for the service of our retir-
replete with men and women highly accomplished ing directors are mixed with sadness at losing two
in a variety of fields and earnestly committed to mainstays of the foundation’s work in this period.
Harry Guggenheim’s vision, has been augmented Both James M. Hester, president of HFG from 1989
by three new directors, each with a distinctive to 2004, and James B. Edwards, who served on
and valuable perspective on our mission. Matthew our board for twenty-eight years, passed away in
Duveneck, a great-grandson of Mr. Guggenheim, is December of 2014.
an ecologist with expertise in human influences on In the spring of 1989, I invited Dr. Hester, who
the natural environment. Tucker McNeil has served had been a member of our board since 1984, to
as a speechwriter for a number of political officials succeed Floyd Ratliff as president of the founda-
at both the state and federal levels, and brings to tion the following July. Jim was retiring from the
our deliberations a great deal of knowledge about presidency of The New York Botanical Garden at
current public policy issues. And Thomas Piper III, the end of that year. Before that he had been pres-
with years of experience advising both businesses ident of New York University for fourteen years
and philanthropic organizations on investing, will (taking that position at the tender age of 38) and
enhance the quality of our decision making regard- rector of the United Nations University in Tokyo
ing the foundation’s financial resources. for five years. He was a former Rhodes Scholar
We acknowledge with enormous gratitude the with a bachelor’s degree in history from Princeton
long service of three board members who have University and a doctorate in international affairs
retired in the period since the last HFG report. from Oxford University.
7
Jim helmed this organization with great com- James Edwards graduated from the College
petence and energy for fifteen years, until Josiah of Charleston in 1951 and attended dental school
Bunting III took over the presidency in 2004. Under at the University of Louisville, receiving additional
Jim’s leadership, the foundation’s priorities shifted training at the University of Pennsylvania and
somewhat from a previous emphasis on animal Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. He became active
models of human aggression to research on the in electoral politics shortly thereafter and (after
nature of violence and aggression in the modern defeating General William Westmoreland—another
world. This transition led to a series of studies and eventual director of this foundation—in the 1974
publications on what research had shown on a vari- Republican primary) was eventually elected gover-
ety of issues such as violence in entertainment, gun nor of South Carolina, serving from 1975 to 1979.
violence, urban crime, nationalism and violence, In 1981, he became the U.S. Secretary of Energy,
and the relationship between punishment and vio- under President Reagan, holding that office for
lence. To disseminate the insights of HFG scholars two years. He was then tapped to be president of
to a non-specialist audience, The HFG Review, an the Medical University of South Carolina, a posi-
occasional publication in magazine format, was tion he held for seventeen years, until retiring in
begun. To the same end, a competition was held to 2000. He was a member of myriad corporate and
produce an undergraduate curriculum on violence foundation boards. Most important to us, of course,
in order to acquaint college students with the role was the sage counsel he provided the Harry Frank
of violence in human behavior and institutions. Guggenheim Foundation as a director for nearly
Shortly after Dr. Hester assumed office, it three decades, from 1979 to 2007.
became apparent that Daniel Island, a property near The focus of our endeavor, inspired by a meet-
Charleston, South Carolina that Harry Guggenheim ing among Harry Guggenheim, General Jimmy
had bequeathed to our foundation, should be pre- Doolittle, and Charles Lindberg and launched with
pared for sale. A new highway across the island had a few exploratory grants in 1968, has never been
greatly increased its value and therefore the pay- more vital. I am exceedingly proud to be associ-
out requirements for the foundation’s endowment ated with our president, directors, and staff in their
beyond what our income-earning assets could meaningful effort to clarify the factors that underlie
afford. For five years, from 1990 to 1995, Dr. Hester the occurrence of violence, an indispensable part
spent a great deal of time making the arrange- of the quest to reduce it.
ments that led to the sale of Daniel Island in 1998
with great financial benefit to the foundation.
8
President’s Statement
Josiah Bunting III
President
The mission of the Harry Frank Guggenheim between nations. The Middle East is aboil with the
Foundation was shaped by conversations Mr. continuing conflict over Israel and Palestine as well
Guggenheim initiated with friends and advisors as as sectarian violence, its currently most copious
he neared the end of his career. Having recently manifestation a fundamentalist insurgency intent
witnessed the destruction of a world war, they on recreating a 7th-century caliphate and employ-
looked to the future, hoping to have learned some- ing violent atrocities commensurately medieval
thing from the past for charting social and politi- in nature. A newly assertive Russia is projecting
cal directions. Mankind had made such progress in its military power in the Ukraine and Middle East,
medicine, engineering, transportation; they won- risking a possible confrontation with the West. The
dered why nations could not settle their differences Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria, and Libya
without recourse to violence. With faith in the inge- are just three locations in Africa suffering violence
nuity of the human mind, his associates advised driven by a mix of sectarian conflict and designs on
Mr. Guggenheim to leave as a legacy the means valuable resources. Latin America’s massive infor-
to enable the world’s best thinkers to apply them- mal settlements are beset by rampant criminal vio-
selves to better understanding this dependency on lence, and the market that moves illicit drugs from
violent solutions to problems of governance and their production zones through Central America
economic competition. From these beginnings the and Mexico into the U.S. and Europe takes scores
present foundation has evolved, vital and robust, as of lives daily.
this report testifies. The foundation continues in ardent service of
I’m occasionally asked about the founda- its original mission, supporting scholarly inquiries
tion’s purposes, and when I answer the response into the factors that underlie these and other types
is almost invariable: “These must be boom times of violence. Are lootable resources (oil, timber, dia-
for you.” The international scene is indeed replete monds) the motivations for insurgencies, or do
with violence, though in recent decades it more they merely provide the financial wherewithal to
often takes the form of violence within rather than pursue political goals? What role do the ideologies
9espoused by rebel leaders play in impelling indi- our collaborative effort with New York’s John Jay
viduals to participate in violent conflicts as distinct College of Criminal Justice to enhance the qual-
from less lofty and more self-interested aspira- ity of reporting on criminal justice issues. 2015
tions? Do civil wars widely glossed as ethnic or sec- saw the 11th annual iteration of the Harry Frank
tarian in nature reflect historically deep animosities Guggenheim Symposium on Crime in America at
between ethnic or religious groups or result instead John Jay College, with the theme “Race, Justice,
from efforts of ethnic or religious “entrepreneurs” and Community,” a timely reflection of the growing
to convince would-be followers that another group national discussion about race, policing, and pun-
threatens their very existence? Do military inter- ishment. Both programs are discussed in illuminat-
ventions by Western nations to dislodge brutal ing detail in this report.
regimes improve the lives of the people on whose Recently, the foundation created an annual
behalf they are undertaken or make things worse? competition for the best English-language book in
Are rates of criminal violence influenced more by the field of military history, motivated by the belief
policing practices, oscillations in the labor market, that studies of the origin and conduct of past wars
or family structure and childrearing practices? Why provide essential knowledge in the quest for a more
is the sale of some illegal commodities associated peaceable future. The Guggenheim-Lehrman Prize
with violence while that for others is not? in Military History will be given for the third time in
Over the past decade, the human toll of 2016 and will now be administered as a cooperative
drug-trafficking violence in several Latin American effort between our foundation and the New York
countries has each year exceeded the number of Historical Society.
deaths commonly used by scholars of armed con- The Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation is
flict to decide whether an armed conflict is a war. In the only organization dedicated exclusively to
an effort to supplement the (often perilous) work of research on the causes of violence. We work in the
journalists reporting on this carnage with scholarly firm conviction that sound efforts to ameliorate this
analysis, the foundation has been especially alert source of misery, whether policies implemented
in the period covered by this report to requests for by governments or programs underwritten by pri-
support of promising doctoral dissertations and vate organizations, require a sound basis in theory
outstanding research proposals on this topic. The and evidence. In the absence of both, such efforts
resulting portfolio of HFG dissertation fellowships may entail a waste of money and human talent or,
and research grants constitutes an important con- worse, an exacerbation of the problem they are
tribution to our understanding of this horrific prob- ostensibly treating. The centerpiece of this report,
lem. The essay inside describes these projects and Three Things That Work to Prevent, Reduce, or
provides a concise but comprehensive primer on Stop Violence, contains five commissioned essays.
the issue. Each distills out of a vast social science and pol-
In addition to supporting the investigations of icy literature—to which HFG scholarship has made
individual scholars, the foundation has devoted a many contributions—a few trenchant observations
good deal of its attention in recent years to improv- about what does and what doesn’t work in the
ing the research capabilities of promising young quest to reduce violence. Some of the arguments
scholars in Africa, as exemplified in our Young are provocative; all are interesting. I believe you will
African Scholars program. And we continue in find these essays well worth reading.
10How to Apply Research
Grants
the dissertation will be finished
during the award year. It is not
Most of our grants fall in the appropriate to apply if this time
range of $15,000 to $40,000 constraint cannot be honored.
per year, usually for periods
of one or two years. Requests Education
for greater amounts will be and Citizenship
considered, but they must Applicants for either the
be strongly justified. Money research grant or the Ph.D.
is available for salary, field fellowship may be citizens
expenses, research assistance, of any country. While almost
clerical services, and any other all recipients of our research
expenses directly related to grant possess a Ph.D., M.D., or
and necessary for the research equivalent degree, there are no
project proposed. Applications degree requirements for the
are submitted online, with a grant. Research grant applicants
deadline of the end of the day need not be affiliated with an
(11:59 pm, EST) on August 1. The institution of higher learning,
application form and detailed although most are university
guidelines can be found through professors. Ph.D. fellowships are
a link on our web site, hfg.org. available for graduate students
Decisions are made in December, enrolled at any university in the
and money is available for world who are writing doctoral
funded projects as early as dissertations on subjects related
January 1. to the foundation’s interests.
Ph.D. Advice
Fellowships Please read this section carefully.
Fellowships are awarded to fund It contains our ideas about what
the writing phase of the Ph.D. makes a convincing, promising
dissertation, not the research proposal for research. These
that precedes it. Awards are comments are intended to direct
$20,000 and granted once a you towards what we see as the
year. Applications are submitted most fruitful research plans and
online, with a deadline of the could prevent you from sending
end of the day (11:59 pm, EST) us an application requesting
on February 1. The application support for activities that we
form and detailed guidelines can do not regard as supportable
be found through a link on our research.
web site, hfg.org. Decisions are Our foundation supports
made in June, and a fellowship research and doctoral disser-
may begin as early as July 1. tations in the social sciences,
Dissertation applicants and their humanities, and biomedical
advisors must assure us that sciences that we believe will
11increase understanding of the is not very promising when an research can be done. And we
causes and control of violence applicant asserts that “very little do not fund studies on topics
and aggression. (Refer to the is known about”—for example, that might be argued to have an
lists of research grants and dis- “resilience in children at risk for indirect relevance to aggression
sertation fellowships earlier in problem aggression”—and then or violence but do not have a
this report for examples of the proposes a project that differs central focus on it. Should there
sort of work we fund.) We do little from the numerous studies be any concern about whether
not fund institutions or pro- that have, in fact, been con- a planned project is relevant to
grams and, apart from our own ducted on the problem. the foundation’s interests, please
conferences and workshops, we We generally prefer to consult with one of our program
do not fund meetings or group support analysis over raw data officers.
projects. However, we will con- collection. Scholars whose work Detailed guidelines for sub-
sider proposals for work to be relies on large data sets that are mitting applications for research
conducted by more than one expensive to collect may find in grants and dissertation fellow-
principal investigator, provided our program an opportunity to ships are available through a link
the necessity for more than one ask for time to think about what on our web site, hfg.org. Please
is well justified. the numbers mean and how read the guidelines carefully—
A good proposal will pose a those findings should affect the including the budget rules—and
specific research problem. After design of future studies. follow instructions meticulously.
reviewing previous work in the While the practical value of Disorganized or incomplete sub-
area, the applicant will focus on some research is readily appar- missions suggest the same qual-
questions that would be consid- ent, the applicability of scholarly ities in the conduct of research
ered both important and unan- insight is often only potential. and seriously damage a propos-
swered by those familiar with We do not expect immediate al’s chances of funding. Even
the relevant literature and then social change to result from the typographical errors will distract
will propose specific methods to completion of a foundation- the reader from your argument
approach the problem directly. supported project. However, and might lead to a negative
As well, an application should not we do look for evidence that evaluation. Take the trouble to
only convince us that its subject an applicant is involved in the proofread your documents and
is interesting and understudied study of violence or aggression to check your math in your bud-
but also show us how larger, gen- because of a concern with it as a get and you will impress our
eral lessons about violence will problem in the world. Why is this reviewers as a careful and accu-
be drawn from an investigation of particular case chosen by which rate worker.
this particular instance of it. to investigate this larger prob- The application process
A proposal describing a gen- lem? How do salient questions involves supplying information
eral problem—for example, “vio- to be investigated here relate via an online form and upload-
lence in the Great Lakes region to understandings developed ing several documents, the lon-
of central Africa”—that does not elsewhere? gest of which will be a research
include specific research ques- We do not fund in an area plan, in the case of a research
tions the topic poses and a prac- just because a project addresses grant application, or a descrip-
tical plan to get at the answers an unsolved and apparently tion of the doctoral research
to those questions will not con- urgent problem related to and planned dissertation, in the
vince us that the project is likely aggression if we cannot be case of a dissertation fellowship
to be productive. Likewise, it assured that first-rate, useful application. In both cases, the
12document should be roughly 15 consultants who work together cerns about the work so that you
double-spaced pages in length. over several years and contribute can re-think areas that might
Documents much shorter than to defining and refining the have affected our decision. But
that will strike our reviewers as foundation’s mission and to our keep in mind that the evaluation
thin; those much longer make ideas about how to pursue it. process is very competitive, and
the process of reviewing many As of 2015, the panel con- often the only thing deficient
applications more difficult. sisted of Rosemary Gartner in a rejected proposal was that,
(Please do not use a font smaller (Centre for Criminology and even though it was a very solid
than 12 points.) Sociolegal Studies, University submission, it simply wasn’t as
of Toronto), Robert Hayden strong as the ones we chose.
Budgets (Anthropology, University of We can fund only a very small
Budget requests are appropriate Pittsburgh), Stathis Kalyvas percentage of the projects pro-
only for expenses specifically (Political Science, Yale posed to us. If your proposal has
related to the proposed University), Clark McCauley been rejected twice, it is usually
research, and salary requests (Social Psychology, Bryn Mawr not worthwhile to try yet again.
should cover only the time College), Catherine Merridale Members of the foundation
required by the research. We do (Institute of Historical Research, staff are happy to discuss pos-
not make it a priority to fund University of London), Randolph sible applications and answer
small percentages (3–7%) of the Roth (History and Sociology, questions about the application
salaries of scholars employed Ohio State University), and process, by phone, letter, or
in research universities so that Pamela Scully (Women’s Studies, email (info@hfg.org). Our mis-
they can devote small portions Emory University). sion includes helping applicants
of their time to overseeing a Proposals recommended prepare strong applications and
project where the work is being by the review panel for funding then choosing among these the
done by students. These salary are assessed by the Program sharpest and most promising.
portions, with attached benefit Committee of the HFG board
percentages, add thousands of according to their understanding
dollars to the cost of a project, of the foundation’s mission. The
money that could be given to proposals are then passed on for
other investigators who cannot consideration by the full board
complete their work without of directors at their meetings in
grant aid. Ask only for the December (for research grants)
salaries essential to getting the and June (for dissertation
work done and which are not fellowships).
being paid by other sources. If a proposal is turned down,
it can be resubmitted at a later
Evaluation deadline, although our review-
The applications are evaluated ers will want to see evidence of
for their scholarly quality and progress in your thinking in the
methodological aptness, as well meantime. Although often it is
as for the salience of the research not easy to pinpoint what was
questions to the foundation’s “wrong” with a proposal that
interests and mission. This is was not funded, on request we
done with the help of a panel of will describe our general con-
13Research Grants 2011–2015
David Anderson Philip Cook Clifton R. Emery
(Biology and Biological (Economics and Sociology, Duke (School of Social Welfare, Yonsei
Engineering, California Institute University). Crime gun theft. University). Beijing-Seoul fam-
of Technology). The neural cir- 2015. ilies and neighborhoods study.
cuitry of aggression, sex, and 2011, 2012.
sexual aggression. 2015. Henar Criado, Jordi
Domenech, and Francisco Ilya V. Gerasimov
Tonio A. Andrade Herreros (Center for the Study of
(History, Emory University). (Political Science and Sociology, Nationalism and Empire). Ethnic
Ways of war: Toward a global Universidad Complutense de violence vs. imperial segrega-
military history. 2012. Madrid/Universidad Carlos III tions: Multinational criminality
de Madrid/Spanish National in the Russian Imperial City as a
Javier Auyero Research Council). Legacies of space of conflict and coopera-
(Sociology, University of Texas, the past and support for terror- tion. 2011.
Austin). In harm’s way: Violence ism in the Basque Country. 2015.
at the urban margins in contem- Rebecca Gould
porary Argentina. 2013. Brian Delay (Humanities, Yale-NUS College
(History, University of California, Singapore). On traumatic
Laia Balcells Berkeley). Shoot the state: modernities: Forced migration
(Institut d’Analisi Economia, Modernity and the means of and Nakh cultural memory along
CSIC). Dynamics of violence in destruction in the Americas: Caucasus borderlands. 2014.
conventional civil wars. 2011. 1750–1920. 2013.
Edward A. Gutierrez
Max Bergholz Elaine Eggleson Doherty (History, University of Hartford).
(History, Concordia University). (Health, Behavior and Society, “Sherman was right”: The experi-
“None of us dared say anything.” Johns Hopkins School of Public ence of AEF soldiers in the Great
Mass killing in a Bosnian commu- Health). Exploring violent War. 2011.
nity during World War II and the careers over the life course: A
postwar culture of silence. 2013, study of urban African American John Hagan
2014. males and females. 2012, 2014. (American Bar Foundation,
Northwestern University). Home
Sarah Cameron Mila Dragojevic foreclosures and criminal vio-
(History, University of Maryland (Politics, University of the lence. 2011, 2012.
College Park). The Hungry South). Collective crimes in
Steppe: Famine, violence, and the times of war: Explaining local Anthony R. Harris
making of Soviet Kazakstan. 2015. variation in violence against civil- (Sociology, UMass Amherst).
ians. 2014. Before assault victims go to
Justin M. Carre and the hospital: Trying to measure
Ahmad R. Hariri Nadia Abu El-Haj “true” race differences in the
(Psychology and Neuroscience, (Anthropology, Barnard College seriousness of injury. 2012.
Duke University). Examination of Columbia University). The
of psychological, hormonal and ethics of trauma: Combat, moral
neural risk-factors underlying injury and the war on terror.
individual differences in human 2015.
reactive and proactive aggres-
15
sion. 2011.Danielle Harris Chowra Makaremi Isabelle Ouellet-Morin
(Justice Studies, San Jose (Anthropology, Institut de (Criminology, Université de
State University). Desistance Recherche Interdisciplinaire Montreal). Stress reactivity to
from sexual offending across sur les Enjeux Sociaux (IRIS)). provocation and aggression in
the life course: A multimethod Contested narratives: A gen- early adulthood: Do early victim-
approach. 2013, 2014. esis of state violence in post- ization and regulation processes
revolutionary Iran (1979–1988). matter? 2013, 2014.
William Hay 2013, 2014.
(History, Mississippi State Kwesi Kwaa Prah
University). King George’s gen- Richard McMahon (Centre for Advanced Studies
erals: How the British army lost (History, NUI, Maynooth). of African Society, Cape Town).
America, 1774–1781. 2013. Violence, law and the Irish The search for peace in the
migrant experience in Glasgow South Sudan. 2011.
Chris Kyle and New York, 1851–1900. 2012.
(Anthropology, University of Aaron B. Retish
Alabama at Birmingham). Spatial Peace A. Medie (History, Wayne State
analysis of criminal violence in (International Affairs and University). In the courts of rev-
Guerrero, Mexico. 2014. Diplomacy, University of Ghana). olution: Violence, legality and
“There is still no justice here!” social control in the Soviet rural
Ann A. Laudati Theorizing women’s move- courtroom, 1917–1939. 2012.
(Environment and Society, Utah ments’ influence on postwar
State University). From Coltan to African states’ enforcement of Viridiana Rios
cattle: Unearthing violence in the gender-based violence laws. (Independent)
Eastern Democratic Republic of 2014. and Mario Arriagada-
Congo. 2012. Cuadriello
Nuno Monteiro and Matthew (Revista Nexos).
Beth Lew-Williams Adam Kocher An unexpected peace:
(History, Princeton University). (Political Science, Yale Understanding resilient order
The Chinese must go: The vio- University). Political violence and violence in multi-gang
lent birth of American border during the German occupation environments. 2014.
control. 2015. of France: A micro level analysis.
2014. Jeffrey Rossman
Federico Lorenz (History, University of Virginia).
(CONICET—National Scientific Godwin Onuoha Stalin’s great terror: A documen-
and Technical Research Council (Democracy, Governance tary history of Soviet perpetra-
of Argentina).Malvinas/Falklands and Service Delivery (DGSD) tors. 2013, 2014.
War: Argentine experiences of Programme, Human Sciences
the 1982 conflict through letters, Research Council, South Africa). Randolph Roth
war diaries and amateur photo- Political economy of memory: (History, Ohio State University).
graphs by soldiers and civilians The making, unmaking and Child murder in America. 2013.
mobilized during the war. 2013, remaking of the Nigeria-Biafra
2014. war. 2014, 2015.
16Jennifer Sessions Judith Smetana Gunes M. Tezcur
(History, University of Iowa). (Clinical and Social Psychology, (Political Science, Loyola
Colonialism on trial: The University of Rochester). University Chicago). Ordinary
Margueritte Affair in Fin-de- Aggression and morality links in people, extraordinary risks:
Siecle Algeria and France. 2013. early childhood. 2015. Joining the Kurdish insurgency
in Turkey. 2012.
Harel Shapira Benjamin B. Smith
(Sociology, University of Texas (Political Science, University of Harry Verhoeven
at Austin). An education in vio- Florida). History and rebellion: (Politics and International
lence: Teaching and learning to The origins of self-determination Relations, University of Oxford)
kill in central Texas. 2015. conflicts in the modern world. and Philip Roessler
2012. (Government, College of William
Rosalind Shaw & Mary).
(Anthropology, Tufts University). Paul Staniland When comrades go to war: Post-
Disarming justice, demobilizing (Political Science, University of liberation movements, elite poli-
memory, producing ‘postconflict’ Chicago). Governing coercion: tics and the internal dynamics of
life in Sierra Leone. 2015. States and violence in Asia. 2013, Africa’s Great War. 2013, 2014.
2014.
Pete G. Simi Nikolaus Wachsmann
(School of Criminology and Magdalena Teter (History, University of London).
Criminal Justice, University of (History, Wesleyan University). The Nazi concentration camps.
Nebraska). Desistance from The Pope’s dilemma: Blood libel 2011.
right-wing extremism. 2012. and the boundaries of Papal
power. 2012.
17Dissertation Fellowships 2011–2015 18
Noel Anderson Lei Duan Francesca Grandi
(Political Science, Massachusetts (History, Syracuse University). (Political Science, Yale
Institute of Technology). The Private gun ownership in University). Troubled peace:
geopolitics of civil war: External Republican China 1912-1949. Explaining political violence in
aid, competitive intervention, 2015. post-conflict environments. 2013.
and the duration of intrastate
conflict. 2015. Maggie Dwyer Mallorie Hatch
(Social and Political Science, (Human Evolution and
Ana Antic University of Edinburgh). Social Change, Arizona State
(History, Columbia University). Anticipating the revolt: Trends University). The social cost of
Psychiatry in flames of war: in military mutinies in West and war: Investigating the relation-
Development of “social rac- Central Africa since indepen- ship between intergroup and
ism” and psychiatric culture in dence. 2013. intragroup violence during the
Yugoslavia. 2011. Mississippian period of the
Derek L. Elliott Central Illinois Valley. 2013.
Teofilo Ballve (History, University of
(Geography, University of Cambridge). Torture and rev- Anna Hedlund
California Berkeley). Territorial enue extraction in company- (Social Anthropology, Lund
masquerades: Violence, paramil- administered Madras, c. University). “Exile warriors”:
itaries, and frontier state forma- 1833–1857. 2013. Violence and community among
tion in Colombia. 2014. Hutu rebels in the Eastern
Casey Ehrlich Congo. 2012.
Daniel Blocq (Political Science, University of
(Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison). Grassroots Froylan Enciso Higuera
Wisconsin-Madison). Formation peace: Post-conflict reconstruc- (History, SUNY: Stony Brook).
of armed self-defense groups. tion in rural Colombia. 2014. Made in Sinaloa: From the
2012. regional to the global history of
Anthony Fontes the Mexican war on drugs, 1909–
Sayaka Chatani (Geography, University of 1985. 2013.
(History, Columbia University). California, Berkeley). What
Nation-empire: Youth mobiliza- violence makes: Transnational Matthew Hulbert
tion in Japan’s colonized periph- gangs in postwar Guatemala. (History, University of Georgia).
eries, 1895-1950. 2013. 2013. Guerrilla memory: Irregular
recollections from the civil war
Cyd Cipolla Mark Anthony Geraghty borderlands. 2014.
(Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality (Anthropology, University of
Studies, Emory University). Chicago). Genocide ideol- Ian Johnson
“After these horrendous crimes, ogy, nation-building, counter- (History, Ohio State University).
that creature forfeits his rights”: revolution: Specters of the The Faustian pact: Secret Soviet-
The violent sex offender as an Rwandan state and nation. 2011. German military cooperation in
exceptional criminal. 2012. the interwar period. 2015.
19Trenton Jones Victor Louzon Dasa Mortensen
(History, Johns Hopkins (History, Yale University). The (History, University of North
University). Deprived of their 1947 Taiwanese Rebellion: Last Carolina at Chapel Hill). Silencing
liberty: Prisoners of war and battle of the Sino-Japanese histories of violence in Shangri-la:
the making of Revolutionary War? 2015. The contested history of Tibetan
American Military Culture, 1775– participation in the Chinese
1783. 2012. Jared McBride Cultural Revolution, 1966–1976.
(History, University of California, 2015.
Mihaly Kalman Los Angeles). A sea of blood and
(Near Eastern Languages and tears: Ethnicity, identity and sur- Andres Moya
Civilizations, Harvard University). vival in Nazi-occupied Volhynia, (Economics, University of
Hero shtetls: Jewish armed Ukraine 1941–44. 2013. California, Davis). The impact of
self-defense from the Pale to violence on risk attitudes and
Palestine, 1871–1929. 2014. Michael McConnell subjective expectations, and
(History, University of the creation of chronic poverty
Kathleen Klaus Tennessee-Knoxville). Home to among the internally displaced
(Political Science, University of the Reich: The Nazi occupation population in Colombia. 2011.
Wisconsin-Madison). Claiming of Europe’s influence on life
land: Institutions, narratives, and inside Germany, 1941–1945. 2014. Ishan Mukherjee
political violence in Kenya. 2014. (History, University of
Brian McQuinn Cambridge). Violence,
Daniel Krcmaric (Anthropology, Oxford “Disorder,” and Decolonization:
(Political Science, Duke University). Inside a revolution: Practices of state control in
University). The justice dilemma: The cognitive foundations of Calcutta, 1945–1950. 2015.
International criminal law, mass armed struggle in Libya. 2013.
atrocities, and civil conflict. 2014. Rebecca Nielsen
Lena Meari (Political Science, Yale
Jeffrey Lane (Anthropology, University of University). Civil war, networks,
(Sociology, Princeton University). California, Davis). Sumud: A phi- and women in politics: Female
The digital street: Adolescent losophy of confronting interro- secret societies in West Africa.
violence, technology, and urban gation. 2011. 2014.
community. 2012.
Jean Pierre Misago Marc Opper
Janet Lewis (African Centre for Migration (Politics, University of Virginia).
(Government, Harvard and Society, University of the Fighting the people, fighting
University). Ending rebellion Witwatersrand). Migration, for the people: Insurgent gov-
early: The initial stages of insur- governance, and violent exclu- ernance and conflict outcomes.
gency and counterinsurgency. sion: Exploring the politics of 2015.
2011. xenophobic violence in post-
apartheid South Africa. 2014.
20Javier Osorio Katherine Saunders- M. Benjamin Thorne
(Political Science, University of Hastings (History, Indiana University,
Notre Dame). Hobbes on drugs: (Centre for Socio-Legal Studies, Bloomington). The anxiety of
Understanding drug violence in University of Oxford). Order proximity: The “gypsy question”
Mexico. 2012. and insecurity under the Mara: in Romanian society, 1934–1944
Violence, coping, and commu- and beyond. 2011.
Tom Pessah nity in Guatemala City. 2014.
(Sociology, University Ana Villarreal
of California, Berkeley). Raz Segal (Sociology, University of
Backgrounding: The meaning (Holocaust and Genocide California Berkeley). The logistics
of cleansing in Israel/Palestine, Studies, Clark University). The of fear: Drug violence and every-
1948. 2012. disintegration of a borderland day life in the Mexican metropo-
society: Genocide and mass lis. 2014.
Nicholas Radburn violence in Subcarpathian Rus’.
(History, Johns Hopkins 2012. Joshua M. White
University). The long middle (History, University of Michigan).
passage: The enslavement of John Straussberger Catch and release: Piracy, slav-
Africans and the transatlantic (History, Columbia University). ery and law in the early modern
slave trade, 1604–1807. 2015. The “Particular Situation” in the Ottoman Mediterranean. 2011.
Futa Jallon: Ethnic conflict, polit- (Declined)
Paola Castano Rodriguez ical community, and belonging in
(Sociology, University of twentieth- century Guinea. 2014. Alec Worsnop
Chicago). The time of the vic- (Political Science, Massachusetts
tims: Understandings of vio- Rachel Sweet Institute of Technology).
lence and institutional practices (Political Science, Northwestern Organization and community:
in the National Commission of University). Institutional choice Determinants of insurgent mili-
Reparation and Reconciliation in in civil war: Rebel tactics for tary effectiveness. 2015.
Colombia. 2011. managing political disorder.
2015. Adnan Zulfiqar
Colin Rose (Near Eastern Languages and
(History, University of Toronto). Henning Tamm Civilizations, University of
Homicide in North Italy: Bologna (Politics and International Pennsylvania). If some obey,
1600–1700. 2015. Relations, University of Oxford). none shall sin: The development
The dynamics of transnational of communal obligations and
Christian Sahner alliances in Africa, 1990–2010. their relationship to violence in
(History, Princeton University). 2012. Islamic legal theory. 2014.
Christian martyrdom in the early
Islamic period. 2014. Gene Tempest
(History, Yale University). The
long face of war: Horses in the
French and British armies on the
Western Front. 2012.
21HFG Research on Drug Violence in Mexico and Central America 22
In the period covered by this HFG Report, the foun- couriers but wholesale buyers and sellers of cocaine;
dation has increased the number of research grants their wealth grew inversely with the Colombians’
and dissertation fellowships given for work on vio- decline in profit per kilogram. Today, well over 90%
lence in Mexico and Central America. Most of this of the cocaine in the United States arrives by way of
research, though not all, has been about the striking Mexico, and almost all of that first passes through
increase in recent years in violence related to the one or more countries in Central America.
trafficking of illegal drugs into the United States. In the late 1980s, the dismantling of the dom-
The transporting of cocaine from Colombia into inant Mexican organization, the Guadalajara Cartel,
the U.S. began in the 1970s and became voluminous through the systematic arrest of its top personnel
in the 1980s, the profits subsidizing the growth of spawned several new groups. The decade of the
a small number of massively wealthy, politically 1990s and the first half of the 2000s saw periodic
influential, and yet increasingly violent criminal spikes in homicide arising from competition among
enterprises somewhat misleadingly called “cartels” them over access to trafficking corridors (“pla-
(Medellin, Cali) by journalists and scholars alike. zas”) into the U.S. As well, the Mexican takeover
The primary transport route was by boat or plane of wholesale delivery of cocaine to the U.S. market
through the Caribbean islands and into Florida, spawned a number of domestic markets, especially
from where the drug was then distributed through- in border cities such as Tijuana and Ciudad Juarez,
out the country by numerous smaller operations. which saw periods of violent contention for control
In the early 1980s, the U.S. government undertook of these local markets. However, these outbreaks
to shut down the Florida “highway” through a rig- were not widespread or sustained enough to alter a
orous interdiction program carried out jointly by decades-long downtrend in Mexico’s overall homi-
several law enforcement and military agencies, an cide rate. This drop ended dramatically, however,
effort that succeeded in effectively closing off this after 2007, with homicides tripling over the next
path by the end of that decade. In response, the five years. As shocking as the rise in violence was
Colombian cartels shifted their smuggling routes the savage nature of much of the killing, including
westward, shipping to Mexico either directly or beheadings and other forms of mutilation, as well
via Central America. At the same time, American- as its brazenness in the form of assassinations of
funded anti-drug operations in Colombia and its public officials and the murder of journalists and
coca-producing neighbors, Bolivia and Peru, were others innocent of involvement in drug trafficking.
taking a toll on the fortunes of the major cartels, The uptick in Central America’s violence
resulting in a proliferation of smaller, less visible, occurred earlier than Mexico’s, in the early 2000s in
and less violent trafficking organizations. Guatemala and El Salvador and 2005 in Honduras.
The shift to an overland route into the U.S. cre- This change occurred after the advent of major
ated a new economic opportunity for Mexican drug cocaine smuggling in these countries. Combined
trafficking organizations, which had well-developed with details about the identity of victims of the kill-
systems for delivering locally produced marijuana ings (perpetrators are rarely caught), this sequence
and heroin to the U.S. dating back to the early leaves little doubt that, as in Mexico, trafficking
decades of the 20th century. Mexican traffickers rivalries contributed to the rise in violence. There
became cocaine couriers in the 1980s, paid mainly is reason to think, however, that rates of violence
on commission for moving the drug across the bor- would have increased even without the arrival of
der. As Colombian producers became increasingly drug trafficking. Central America has seen an influx
reliant on their Mexican partners over the 1990s, the of forcibly repatriated violent young men since the
terms of the relationship evolved in favor of the lat- U.S. Congress passed legislation in 1996 mandat-
ter. The Mexican organizations were no longer mere ing the deportation of non-citizens who had spent
23a year or more in prison. Some 50,000 people the U.S. and vice versa. Opium production was sig-
who had served prison sentences were sent back nificantly augmented in the 1940s as the U.S. gov-
to their natal Central American countries over the ernment, to insure a sufficient supply of morphine
next decade, many of whom were members of the for its soldiers, unofficially supported the cultivation
violent Hispanic gangs of Los Angeles, chiefly the of opium poppies in Mexico. Utilizing archival mate-
Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) and 18th Street (M-18) rials that had been largely off-limits to researchers
gangs. Mortal rivals in the U.S., their violence in until recent cracks in the control of Mexico’s author-
Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador has been itarian PRI regime, Enciso documented the deep
exacerbated by the prevalence of powerful fire- involvement of government officials in drug traffick-
arms after the intra-national Central American wars ing from its inception. Understanding government
of the late Cold War decades. Recent homicide complicity in—indeed, control of—drug trafficking
rates in each of these countries were at least twice is key to understanding the relatively non-violent
as great as Mexico’s was even in its worst year (thus business practices of traffickers through most of the
far) for homicides, 2011. 20th century.
The 2010 HFG report discussed Foundation- Why, after generations of trafficking, did the
sponsored research and conferences about both business turn so grotesquely bloody in the 2000s?
political and drug-related violence in the Andean Much of the explanation, Javier Osorio (DF, 2012)
region, especially Colombia. In the past five years, showed, lies with democratization, the loosening of
HFG research grantees and dissertation fellows the PRI’s 70-year grip on power beginning in the
have elucidated each of the major developments 1990s, especially at the level of governorships and
in Mexico and Central America discussed above, mayoralties. With the opening up of the political
providing historical and ethnographic context and system to other political parties, including non-
quantitative analyses that, ideally, will inform the PRI presidential wins in 2000 and again in 2006,
crafting of sound policy. came an unsettling of long-standing arrangements
Froylán Enciso (Dissertation Fellow, 2013) between politicians and organized crime. This led
charted the deep history of contemporary traffick- to violence via at least two mechanisms. The elec-
ing by focusing on the Pacific state of Sinaloa, the tion of a non-PRI candidate meant that the previ-
cradle of the Mexican drug trade. Drug trafficking ously favored drug trafficking organization in that
into the U.S. began, by definition, when the U.S. out- area might have lost its patron, a weakening that
lawed the free trade in narcotics in 1914. Marijuana would embolden rival organizations to a takeover
cultivation has a long history in Mexico, and poppy attempt. As well, politicians of the main opposi-
cultivation dates back over a century, brought to tion party, the PAN, for whom reduction of drug
Mexico by Chinese laborers imported to work in violence was a major campaign issue, undertook,
the mines and railroads. In the 1920s, members of when elected, to make good on that promise. In
Sinaloa’s economic elite, faced with reduced finan- some cases, their efforts to suppress trafficking
cial circumstances because of land redistribution engendered a vicious counteroffensive. A major
after the revolution, enlisted peasants in opium grow- turning point was the election of PAN candidate
ing, raising production levels and using the shipping Felipe Calderon as president in 2006. Shortly after
infrastructure recently developed for agriculture assuming the presidency, he called out the army in
to deliver marijuana, opium, and heroin to the U.S. massive numbers in a front-on attack against the
Court cases from Sinaloa in this period demonstrate cartels. Mexico’s homicide graph turned up sharply
that not only Mexican but American citizens as well— after 2007, reflecting an estimated 65,000 deaths
and U.S. pharmaceutical companies--were involved from drug-related violence over the next four years.
in moving prohibited substances from Mexico into Using a number of spatial econometric tools, Osorio
24found that government anti-trafficking actions in ing groups. One of the shocking aspects of their
a given municipality, whether assaults, arrests, or violence is the frequency with which agents of
asset seizures, had substantial exacerbating effects the government have been targeted, for it is cer-
on violence between traffickers in that location. tainly not self-evident that this tactic would serve
And the greater the number of trafficking organiza- the interests of a criminal group; it might instead
tions in a location, the greater was this catalyzing be expected to elicit state repression. Benjamin
effect of government interventions. Lessing (DF, 2010) developed a quantitative model
As Osorio’s research shows, violence between of the factors determining when anti-state violence
cartels is potentiated by the presence in a given would benefit a crime group and when not. He also
location of more than one such group. Such a finding created an extensive database of trafficker violence
might be predicted considering the nature of a crimi- covering not just Mexico but Colombia and Brazil,
nal enterprise in which, as in other businesses, profits which showed patterns validating the predictions
depend on market share and good logistics—unim- of his model. Cartels employ violence against state
peded throughput of product from point of manufac- agents either to compel changes in laws (violent
ture to consumer. It is thus not surprising that 80% of lobbying) or to deter state agents from enforcing
Mexican municipalities in which more than one car- laws (violent corruption). The conditions favoring
tel is operating have seen drug-related violence. But the use of violent lobbying are not common, so
what about the other 20%—places that, given the examples are relatively few, such as Pablo Escobar’s
presence of more than one cartel, “should” have suf- campaign of terror to force Colombia’s government
fered such violence but have had none or only little? to scratch an extradition treaty with the U.S. Violent
Viridiana Rios and Mario Arriagada (Research Grant, corruption, far more common, is a way of augment-
2014) are studying these dogs that don’t bark. Using ing a strategy of simple bribery. By inflicting vio-
a web-scraping program to comb a number of news- lent punishment on public officials (chiefly police)
papers and social media sites for every mention of for noncompliance with bribes offered or paid—the
cartel activity, whether violent or not, they generated infamous “plato o plomo” (silver or lead) policy—
a map of cartel presence across Mexico. With a sam- criminals use the stick to enhance the appeal of the
ple of violent locales, they’re conducting a paired carrot and also probably reduce the size of the car-
comparison of each one with a place that matches rot needed to secure the impunity they demand.
the violent place on every dimension—economic, The social science literature on Mexican drug
demographic, and geographic—conceivably relevant violence tends to be aggregate in focus, yielding
to the occurrence of trafficking violence, has more a picture of national trends. But detailed local and
than one cartel present, and yet has not been violent. regional studies that contribute to our understand-
The explanation for the absence of violence might lie ing of geographic variation in violence rates are
in a modus vivendi based on a shared belief between important, too. Chris Kyle (RG, 2014) is conducting
crime groups that violence is ultimately harmful to such a study in the southwestern state of Guerrero,
their bottom lines. Or it could be that quiet locations which has had the highest homicide rate in Mexico
are blessed with a local political, religious, or civil-so- for several years, with Acapulco, its largest city, at
ciety figure who exerts a salutary, pacifying influence or near the top of Mexico’s list of most violent cities.
on all parties. The findings of this study could be Kyle has combed local media to amass a database
invaluable for efforts to reduce the carnage beset- of all known drug-related homicides since 2007—
ting so many communities in Mexico. now totaling some 11,000—as well as other traffick-
While the local presence of multiple cartels ing and government anti-trafficking activities.
makes violence more likely, members of other car- As has happened throughout Mexico, the
tels are not the only victims of Mexican traffick- organized-crime story has become more com-
25January, 2014: A self-defense group
disarms local police in Nueva Italia,
Michoacan, Mexico. Members of this
group, El Consejo de Autodefensas
de Michoacán, accused the police
of working for organized crime.
The proliferation of these groups
in Michoacán, Guerrero, and other
states poses a vexing problem for
the Mexican government. Some
have been repressed, but other
groups have been granted state
approval. Some commentators see
the latter practice as pragmatic;
others condemn it as an admission
of government’s failure to provide
security to citizens.
plicated in Guerrero as the cartels that once just unwillingness of local, state, and federal armed
moved drugs have diversified their enterprises, agencies to protect its people, Guerrero has seen
variously specializing in kidnapping and extor- the proliferation of community police forces.
tion, theft of timber, oil, and gasoline, and sale of These are the latest incarnation of volunteer patrol
contraband products within the state. Acapulco groups that first arose in the 1990s in response to
was once a major transfer point for ocean-borne state indifference to cattle rustling and highway
cocaine, and violence spiked there in the middle robbery. Policing their communities and even try-
and late 2000s as rival groups fought for control ing suspects and imposing punishments according
of this port. However, the amount of cocaine mov- to local custom, some of these groups have been
ing through has declined considerably since the “deputized” by the Guerrero government. This
middle of that decade. (The mountains of Guerrero movement is a fascinating development, but not
continue to be the source of most of the opium without perils. Some patrol groups have succeeded
that enters the U.S. as heroin, though.) Most of the in reducing violence by deterring interlopers intent
violence in Acapulco now derives from fights over on taking over rivals’ production areas. At the
retail contraband markets and the intensive extor- same time, though, there are credible reports of
tion and kidnapping activities that occur anywhere abuses, including abductions and executions, and
in the state with people and businesses worth tar- of cartel involvement in some of the new groups.
geting. No group is immune to these depredations. And, of course, unregulated crime-control entities
Schoolteachers in Acapulco, for example, have pose troubling challenges to Mexico’s efforts to
regularly been subjected to demands for half their establish the rule of law and protect basic rights.
monthly salary. Ana Villarreal’s (DF, 2014) research has an even
Most drug violence in the countryside more precise geographic focus: Monterrey, a city
revolves around forays by one cartel into mari- in Mexico’s northeast corner and one of its larg-
juana- or poppy-growing regions under the sov- est. Villarreal carried out two years of participant-
ereignty of another. However, rural areas have observation fieldwork in a study that, unlike most
not been spared by the kidnapping and extor- of our other projects, explored the consequences
tion rackets. In response to the utter inability or of the surge of violence rather than its sources.
26The drug violence that spiked in numerous
Mexican cities in 2007 did not hit Monterrey as soon,
but when it did it elevated the city to the third most
violent by 2011. Villarreal immersed herself in the
lives of every stratum of the population, from work-
ing class precincts to the toniest suburbs, revealing
“the logistics of fear”—adjustments in daily living in
response to the wave of street crime. She groups
these adaptions under terms derived from war-
fare, a taxonomy that works surprisingly well. First,
there’s armoring, both literal and figurative. Some of
the wealthy actually outfitted their cars with armor.
The well-to-do could also turn their streets into pri-
vate redoubts with gates and guards. A number of
parks were fenced in by local authorities to limit
access. It turns out, though, that it’s scary to play
inside a fenced-in park—how quickly can one exit
if shooting erupts? The perverse consequence of
this practice was the abandonment of some pub-
lic spaces by all but those who are up to no good.
In camouflaging, a small business would try to
make itself less attractive to extortionists by main-
taining a dilapidated exterior. Sales of luxury cars
declined while economy cars became more popu-
lar; people were trading down to lower their profile.
Caravanning was exemplified by cars spontaneously
clustering on the highway and even in parts of the
city for protection in numbers. Solo pedestrian
excursions became rare, family walks common in
both poor and affluent neighborhoods.
The same kinds of defensive provisions that
Villarreal detailed for Monterrey can be seen else-
where in Latin America, including in the Central Disparate public responses to rampant violence in Monterrey,
American countries beleaguered by gang violence. Mexico. Top: A local artist’s macabre commentary on how citizens
Nicaragua, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala have become inured. A man pursues normal pastimes, including
barbecuing, as he comments, “The streets of Monterrey smell deli-
all have gang traditions dating back many decades.
cious, like carne asada.” Bottom: One of thousands of publically
Every sizable city had neighborhood gangs, the
displayed handkerchiefs commemorating family or friends killed
claimed purpose of which was, in essence, to protect or “disappeared” in the drug wars: “Gustavo Castañeda Puentes.
their communities from other gangs. While members Detained and disappeared by the Monterrey police, patrol cars 534,
were involved in crime—robbery, burglary, extortion— 538 and 540. February 25, 2009. I have your smile tattooed on my
and were violent, the violence was directed mainly heart. I love you my son. Your parents and siblings will not stop
looking for and waiting for you. Embroidered by: Mom.”
towards members of other gangs, and rarely with
fatal outcomes. In the main, they refrained from prey-
ing on their own communities. As one ex-gangster
27You can also read
