Please use this identifier to cite or link to this item: https://hdl.handle.net/10419/47862 
Title (translated): 
Constructed insecurities. Discourse analysis and the understanding of violence in Central America
Year of Publication: 
2006
Series/Report no.: 
GIGA Working Papers No. 34
Publisher: 
German Institute of Global and Area Studies (GIGA), Hamburg
Abstract: 
In all Central American countries we witness a struggle to define, interpret and classify types of violence, delinquency, crime and (in)security. Although this struggle has highly relevant political and social implications, it has not been analyzed systematically. This article evaluates the state of the art and, based on methodological considerations, emphasizes the contribution of qualitative research on the local level in contrast to quantitative studies on the national or regional level. In a second step, using the discourse on Central American youth gangs as an example, the authors show that moral panic and repressive criminal policies are not direct consequences of the violence phenomena per se. Rather, the perception of and the reactions to insecurity and violence are based on social discourses about these phenomena.
Subjects: 
Central America
violence
delinquency
insecurity
discourse analysis
Document Type: 
Working Paper

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