The effects of government intervention efforts on violence: Cases of Medellin, Colombia and Juarez, Mexico

Through the study of cases of urban intervention programs in Medellin, Colombia and Juarez, Mexico, similarities and differences in the development of these interventions and their effects violence will be highlighted. Interventions are defined as efforts to disrupt the violent situation that is the status quo of a city. These interventions are carried out through infrastructural and non-infrastructural aspects. The Medellin case study is an example of an intervention through infrastructure that adopts the built environment to decrease spatial segregation and measure how this in turn affects violence. Other manifestations of these interventions took the form of what is referred to as social infrastructures, which are the creations of local councils to work through neighborhood concerns and to come up with anti-crime strategies. These manifestations of interventions took the form of tables of security in Juarez as the remnants of a larger intervention that had both infrastructural and social infrastructural aspects, We are Juarez. After considering these specific interventions, my hypothesis is that urban interventions through infrastructural and social development can reduce violence, but only if supported by business and political coalitions invested in reducing violence through social development. This hypothesis is propelled by the theoretical mechanism that a business climate favorable to diversified economic development plus business and politician coalitions that will enhance interactions with civil society