Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conflict in the City of Rosario, a Analysis and Proposals of...

8/8/2019 Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conflict in the City of Rosario, a Analysis and Proposals of Conflict Transformation

1/26

All text o the International Journal o Confict and Violence is subject to the terms o the Digital Peer Publishing Licence.

http://www.ijcv.org /docs/licence/DPPL_v2_en_06-2004.pd

Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conict in the Cityo Rosario, Argentina: Analysis and Proposals or Con-ict TransormationCelina Del Felice, Centre or International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN),

Radboud University, the Netherlands

urn:nbn:de:0070-i jcv-2008159

IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008, pp. 72 97

Focus:

Neighbourhood & Violence

Open Section

Editorial (p. 3 )

Guest Editorial Miles Hewstone, Douglas S. Massey (pp. 4 5)

Hating the Neighbors: The Role o Hate Crime in the Perpetuation

o Black Residiential SegregationAmi Lynch (pp. 6 27)

Neighborhood Violence and Adolescent Friendship David Harding (pp. 28 55)

The eects o living in segregated vs. mixed areas in Northern Ireland: A simultaneous analysis

o contact and threat eects in the context o micro-level neighbourhoods Katharina Schmid,

Nicole Tausch, Miles Hewstone, Joanne Hughes, Ed Cairns (pp. 56 71)

Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conlict in the City o Rosario, Argentina

Celina Del Felice (pp. 72 97)

How Insecurity impacts on school attendance and school drop out among urban slum

children in Nairobi Netsayi N. Mudege, Eliya M. Zulu, Chimaraoke Izugbara (pp. 98 112)

How Neighborhood Disadvantage Reduces Birth WeightEmily Moiduddin, Douglas S. Massey (pp. 113 129)

Crossing the Rubicon: Deciding to Become a Paramilitary in Northern Ireland Neil Ferguson,

Mark Burgess, Ian Hollywood ( pp. 130 137)

Policing and Islamophobia in Germany The Role o Workplace Experience Heidi Mescher (pp. 138 156)


2/26

73

1. Introduction

During the s when citizens o the city o Rosario, Ar-gentina, were asked what the main problems that aectedtheir lives were, they replied that employment was theirrst concern, ollowed by security and education. In morerecent years, however, security ranked as the most press-ing concern. Incidents o violent robbery have risen andthus eelings o insecurity have grown dramatically. Tenumber o youth who engage in violence or are victims oit (e.g. delinquency, ghts between gangs) has risen sincethe s. According to Ciaardini () this was due toa lack o social cohesion, a breakdown o amily structures,

high unemployment rates, the deterioration o the educa-tion system, and other actors. Responses to this situationand eelings o insecurity include: the creation o privateneighborhoods outside the city, where groups o wealthier

amilies build their houses surrounded by a wall or enceand sae-guarded by private security orces; the increase oprivate security companies and services; and avoidance ocertain disadvantaged areas, slums, or poor neighborhoodso the city by police orces, citizens, and public transporta-tion.1 Tese reactions have deepened social ragmentationand conict in the city; presently, there is an underlyingpolarization between those who are in the city and abideby its civilized norms o conduct, and those who are out,criminals who dey law and order. Te dominant discourseo politicians and media reers to control and reintegrationo youth in conict with the law and the need to rein-

orce the existing security apparatus. Insecurity is under-stood and treated as an issue o criminality and juveniledelinquency, not as a wider social conict.

Tis article is based on the MA thesis paper submit-ted by the author to the European University Centeror Peace Studies, Stadtschlaining, Austria (www.epu.ac.at) in December . I was supervised

by Alicia Cabezudo and Andria Wisler, and I amthankul or their comments and encouragement.I am also grateul or the valuable commentsreceived rom anonymous reviewers.

IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 7297

Celina Del Felice: Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conict in the City o Rosario, Argentina

The present article describes and analyses youth criminality in the city o Rosario, Argentina, between 2003 and 2006. Key actors understandings o and

responses to the confict were investigated by means o semi-structured interviews, observations, discourse analysis o policy documents, and analysis o

secondary data, drawing heavily on the experience o the author, a youth worker in Rosario. The actors examined were the police, the local government, young

delinquents, and youth organizations. Youth criminality is analyzed with a confict transormation approach using confict analysis tools. Whereas the provincial

police understand the issue as a delinquency problem, other actors perceive it as an expression o a wider urban social confict between those who are

included and those who are excluded and as one o the negative eects o globalization processes. The results suggest that police responses addressing

only direct violence are ineective, even contributing to increased tensions and polarization, whereas strategies addressing cultural and structural violence

are more suitable or this type o social urban confict. Finally, recommendations or local youth policy are proposed to acilitate participation and inclusion o

youth and as a tool or peaceul confict transormation.

Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conict in the Cityo Rosario, Argentina: Analysis and Proposals or Con-ict TransormationCelina Del Felice, Centre or International Development Issues Nijmegen (CIDIN),

Radboud University, the Netherlands

1 In Argentina slums are colloquially calledvillas miseria.


3/26

74IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


What is the urban social conict in Rosario beyond thedominant discourse? Tis question led to others, includ-

ing: What are the causes o this conict? How do dier-ent actors dene and understand the conict? What aretheir proposed solutions? How can policy be a conicttransormer? Tese questions show that there is a need toresearch these phenomena and identiy what good prac-tices currently exist to respond to this type o problems.Tere is a need or research on public youth policies using anew paradigm o participatory democracy which consid-ers youths as actors and resources, and not only as passivebeneciaries or troublemakers. Te aims o this article areto describe and analyze the problem o youth criminality

as an expression o urban social conict and a response tostructural violence in the city o Rosario, and to explorethe responses o key actors to this problem, in particularto consider the existing youth policies o local and stategovernment and the contributions o non-governmentalyouth organizations and to propose recommendationsor improving current interventions. It is important alsoto note the limitations o this study. Given that no similarstudies have been undertaken rom a conict transorma-tion perspective, the analysis remains o an exploratoryand descriptive nature, relying on qualitative methodolo-gies. Te aim o this study was not to test causal relationsbut rather to describe and understand how the main actorsperceive the causes o criminality, whether they link thisto wider social conicts, and how they address the issuethrough their behavior and policies. Further research andtesting o explanatory hypothesis are needed as detailed inthe conclusions.

Tis article attempts to go beyond the predominantdiscourse that identies the conict as a youth violencephenomenon. We are dealing not with a single conict, butrather a complex o conicts which overlap and are inter-

twined with each other. Tere is an underlying macro-levelsocioeconomic conict between those who eel excludedand those that believe that their prescriptions do not leadto exclusion. In this context, the issue o youth criminal-ity is embedded in this larger inclusion-exclusion conict,and in a generational one. In predominant discourses,young people are depicted as the problem; they are seen ina negative light, as criminals or as victims o unair struc-tures rather than as social resources. Within this discourse,

their engagement in violence is due to their deviation andanomie. In Argentina, repression is the main strategy o

social control used by the police (CELS ). One conclu-sion o this study is that this response has been inadequateand has not improved the situation. Te discourse hidesthe root causes o the conicts, consequently hindering thesearch or eective solutions. Tis article argues that theobserved direct violence armed robbery, and violenceduring robbery is a response to the presence o extremestructural and cultural violence. Tereore, no publicpolicy based only on stopping direct violence will be suc-cessul. An eective answer to this problem must attemptto address structural and cultural violence. Although an

intergenerational conict exists, this conict is not the only(or primary) one. Te conict is not only between youthand adults but rather between the included and the

excluded o society.

Tis article aims to contribute to the elds o conict analy-sis and peace studies by considering the views and perspec-tives o various actors in the conict and their potential tobe actors or peace. A conict transormation ramework isapplied to a current policy issue in the city o Rosario, Ar-gentina, and oers constructive proposals or the transor-mation o the conict. Its relevance or the study o peaceand conict lies in its analysis o an urban-level socialconict, which is an intra-society conict at the meso-level(Galtung ). Te analysis o this type o conict lls agap, as conict transormation and peacebuilding analysesare oen contextualized in inter-state and intra-state sce-narios. Although the analysis is specic to one particularmedium-sized city in South America (population ca. onemillion), it is relevant or cities worldwide where similartrends appear, rom the avelas o Rio to the suburbs oNew York and the banlieues o Paris. Te act that socialinclusion issues are relevant or most large cities world-

wide shows that local-level conicts between included andexcluded represent a global issue o concern. Furthermore,this article contributes to the analysis o public policies inthe elds o youth and violence prevention.

2. On the Conceptual and Methodological Approach

2.1. Youth

Even though there is a growing interest in youth, and de-velopment agencies, governments and non-governmental


4/26

75IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


organizations state that they work with or or youth, theconcept o youth itsel has been under debate in recent

decades and has been redened by various social anddemographic changes. Youth reers to a heterogeneousgroup encompassing individuals with various ethnicities,religions, races, genders, and classes. Some avor biologi-cal markers, in which youth is the period between pubertyand parenthood, while others dene youth in terms ocultural markers a distinct social status with specicroles, rituals, and relationships (USAID ). Histori-cally, youth has been dened through age, as the periodin between childhood and adulthood, marked by socialrituals and customs. Adulthood is associated with mar-

riage and orming a new amily as the main indicator omaturity. In modern societies the period where childhoodhas been le behind but the responsibilities o adulthoodhave not yet been assumed has become longer. Adulthoodis associated with entrance into the labor market andassuming civic and political responsibilities (avella et al.). During this period, youth can stay longer in theormal education system and enjoy recreational activitieswhich complement their social and cultural education. Itis a time in which they can nd their vocations, draw uptheir lie projects and plan their utures, but most impor-tantly, acquire technical skills to enter the labor market.Tis is linked to the idea o progress and industrializationprocesses which need a more qualied labor orce. Teconcept o youth was constructed as a social representa-tion o a uture ull o hope (when young people seemedto abide by the rules and buy into the dreams o progressand the established order) and as a uture social threat orsource o chaos (when youth challenged the establishedorder and social values) (avella et al. ). Tis idea oyouth constructed during modernity has been challenged,as the idea o progress itsel is questioned. Modernitymeant progress and the underlying idea was that a better

uture could be planned, so youth planned and investedtime in their proessional careers as this was expectedrom them to ensure progress o society.

However, presently this belie in progress is being weak-ened by the ailure o socioeconomic paradigms, whether

communism or neoliberal capitalism, to bring aboutdevelopment and prosperity. Tis ailure, consequently, a-ects the concept o youth. In both systems, entrance intothe world o work is the main channel or participation ina society. Unemployment, underemployment, exploita-tion, and child labor have produced disenchantment witha social system that is unable to provide this vital resourceand human right. Tis has led to uncertainty and lack otrust in overarching social proposals; this disillusionmentis a sign o our times.2 Tis crisis o the idea o modernityand progress has an enormous impact on youth and the

concept o youth. Youth cannot reach adulthood i theycannot nd employment. Oen youth nd employmentmuch later in their lives or are underemployed all theirlives. In this sense, youth becomes a timeless category.Being young becomes an end in itsel beyond age. Youthbecomes a sociocultural model that inuences all spaceso public and private lie, as being an adult stops being anattractive goal and becoming old seems to be a curse. Be-ing youthul is cool or in, and it translates into ashion,entertainment, and cultural consumption in general, madepossible by plastic surgery, cosmetics, and endless wayso looking and eeling young which only a ew can aord.Te idea that the uture is now and that tomorrow is araway shapes the way young people see lie and plan theirlie strategies. Culture is inuenced by the idea that any-thing goes (odo vale) to be happy today. Te contexto this cultural and structural crisis associated with theimpact o globalization processes is key to understand-ing why and how young people in Rosario are inuenced,and inuenced dierently according to their position inthe socioeconomic structures, how they understand theirlives and justiy their choices. While some youth are, andcan be, youth longer, in sectors o the society subject to

deeper crisis or upheaval the concept o youth may radi-cally alter as boys and girls are orced to take on adultresponsibilities at a very young age.

2 Tis crisis is associated with the postmodernistmovement which called into question the ideas oprogress, rationality, and objectivity upon whichmodernism was based. Authors like Jean FrancoisLyotard, John Paul Saul, Michel Foucault, andJacques Derrida were associated with this movement.

3 In Rosario, demographic trends in the upperclasses are similar to those ound in developedcountries, motherhood at thirty. Te Council oEurope considers youth to last until the age othirty.


5/26

76IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


2.2. Peacebuilding and Conict Transormation

Societies and individuals oen respond to problems and

conicts using violence and orce. Several debates exist onwhether human beings are inherently violent and questionslike: Do young people naturally respond to violence withmore violence? appear. In a group o scientists metin Seville, Spain, and draed the Seville Statement, whosepurpose was to dispel the widespread belie that humanbeings are inevitably disposed to war as a result o innate,biologically determined aggressive traits.4 Te statementclaims that It is scientically incorrect to say that we haveinherited a tendency to make war rom our animal ances-tors. Although ghting occurs widely throughout animal

species, only a ew cases o destructive intra-species ght-ing between organized groups have ever been reportedamong naturally living species, and none o these involvethe use o tools designed to be weapons. . . . It is scienti-cally incorrect to say that war or any other violent behavioris genetically programmed into our human nature. Tis isan important starting point when studying youth who arecondemned by media and society as violent and troublemakers. Contrary to certain popular belies and the opin-ions o some criminologists, young delinquents are notborn evil and human beings are not by nature violent andcriminals.

Tis analysis is nurtured and guided by a nonviolent peace-building and conict transormation approach, mostlybased on the work o Johan Galtung and his ranscendmethod (Galtung ). At the same time, Miall ()indicates that a diversity o approaches in peacebuilding isrelated to the changing nature o contemporary conictsand reects the need or new tools o analysis. Miall pres-ents three undamental characteristics o contemporaryconict: ) they are asymmetric, marked by inequalities opower and status; ) they are protracted, deying cycli-

cal or bell-shaped models o conict phases; and 3) theseprotracted conicts disrupt societies aected both by localstruggles and global actors. Miall argues that these char-acteristics challenge the approaches which ocus on two

parties and win-win situations. Tis is particularly relevantor the case o youth in Rosario. Te complexity o the situ-

ation requires the consideration o multiple actors in a longterm and integrative social change perspective. Moreover,the three characteristics o contemporary conicts men-tioned by Miall are present in the urban conict in the cityo Rosario. First, the actors are not clearly dened. Teyare numerous, diverse, less organized, more elusive tocluster or group under one leader or one voice, and highlyunequal in terms o power. Second, the conict is ongoing,with periods o more or less intensity. It is not possible toidentiy one single event which started, triggered, or endedthe violence, so the bell-shape model is o limited use or

describing its dynamics. Tirdly, there are local and globalactors which interact in the same space. What is importantto clariy is that a conict transormation approach whichocuses on the transormation o relationships, interests,and discourses and deals with the root causes o the con-ict seems more appropriate and relevant than those thatocus on an agreement or quick x.

In this article, peacebuilding is understood as a processwhich involves a ull range o approaches and interven-tions needed or the transormation o violent relationships,structures, attitudes, and behaviors. It involves creativeand simultaneous political and social processes or ndingtranscendent solutions to the root causes o conicts, dia-logue, and eorts to change attitudes and behavior. Peace-building is multidimensional and it includes the ull rangeo activities rom post-war reconstruction to preventivemeasures. Peacebuilding encompasses all activities whichaim to eliminate or mitigate direct, structural, and cultural

violence. Peacebuilding and conict transormation canonly be possible i diverse needs, interests, and expecta-tions are addressed, and i sincere and uture-orientedprocesses o healing and reconciliation take place. Conse-

quently, the interrelated approaches o conict transorma-tion and peacebuilding are the most appropriate to guidethis conict analysis as multiple actors are considered andthe main ocus is on dealing with the root causes o the

4 Te Seville Statement on Violence was draed byan international committee o twenty scholars atthe sixth International Colloquium on Brain andAggression held at the University o Seville, Spain,

in May , with support rom the Spanish Com-mission or UNESCO. UNESCO adopted the SevilleStatement at its twenty-h General ConerenceSession in Paris, October to November , .

Te statement has been ormally endorsed by scien-tic organizations and published in journals aroundthe world. UNESCO is preparing a brochure to beused in teaching young people about the statement.


6/26

77IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


conict, changing relationships, structures, attitudes andbehavior in a long term perspective, and building creativity

and local capacities.

Another conceptual note should be made on the concept oconict, which is oen used as a synonym or violence andthus bears negative connotations as a ght or struggle, as adisagreement between people with dierent ideas or beliesor as an incompatibility (or perceived incompatibility) ogoals. Conict can also be dened positively as a chanceor actors to express their dierences and become aware oothers perceptions, interests and needs, and thus representan opportunity or change and growth. Conict can also

be seen as a natural process, part o lie and relationships(Galtung ). According to Galtungs approach, conictmay lead to violence but it is conceptually dierent. At thecore o a conict, the root, there is always an incompat-ibility between goals, reerred to as contradiction. Whileconict means an incompatibility o goals, and is naturaland necessary or human and social development, vio-lence oppresses, destroys, and hinders this development.Violence is only one way o dealing with a conict; it isdestructive and rarely transorms the conict positively.Tree orms o violence are conceptualized by Galtung(): a) direct violence is an explicit act or behaviorthat physically damages a person or object; b) structural

violence reers to the violence built into political, social,and economic systems that determine unair distributiono power, resources, and opportunities, leading to actorseeling oppressed and unable to meet their needs; and c)cultural violence is violence entrenched in cultural norms,belies, and traditions that makes certain types o violenceseem legitimate, accepted, normal, or natural. From thisperspective, a high degree o socioeconomic inequalityconstitutes a eature o structural violence as long as thisdistribution o power, resources, and opportunities is

unair. Yet what constitutes unair distribution is debat-able. Extreme material poverty (lack o ood, shelter, andhealth services) is commonly seen as unacceptable, butthe debate is about the underlying reasons and structuresthat lead to poverty or impoverishment. Several historical

analyses o Argentina indicate the reasons why the presentlevels o socioeconomic inequality are the result o unair

distribution o resources, and a ew indications o thesereasons are mentioned in later sections.5 Most importantly,the concept o cultural violence is key to understandinghow an unair distribution o resources is sustained and

justied over time, especially when some groups appear tobe structurally excluded. Social exclusion reers to limita-tions that some groups ace in accessing resources and theperceptions that dierent groups have about being parto society or out o society. In other words, there maybe various degrees o socioeconomic inequality, yet somegroups may eel or perceive themselves or others as socially

excluded. Cultural violence is then the series o belies thatjustiy the unair distribution o resources and make socialexclusion appear as natural or legitimate phenomena. Forexample, in Rosario, it is common to hear among the upperand middle classes the simplistic and narrow analysis thatpoor people are poor because they are lazy. Tis interpreta-tion minimizes or denies aws in the social system itsel;instead it is the individual who is ailing to be sociallyincluded. Tese distinctions are important as oen onlydirect violence is analyzed and treated, and other ormso violence are ignored. Te impact o structural violence isoen orgotten: Empirical work should now be started toget meaningul estimates o the loss o man-years due to di-rect and structural violence, respectively. What is lost in theslums o Latin America relative to the battleelds o Europeduring one year o World War II? (Galtung ). In thisarticle, special emphasis is placed on analyzing how thesethree interrelated types o violence maniest themselves inthe urban space and in the reality o young people.

Critical Marxists base their analyses o urban political andsocial violence on conict between classes, drawing on thelabor theory o value and concepts such as exploitation,

class and the accumulation o capital, and the social rela-tions o production. Capitalism and urbanization are inex-tricably linked, but with no guarantee o social justice. Onerepresentative o this current, Enzo Mangione, states in hisbookSocial Conict and the City () that in some Tird

5 For studies on social inequality and social exclu-sion in Argentina see Minujin et al. (3), Analdi(), and Boron et al ().


7/26

78IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


World countries and underdeveloped regions urbaniza-tion is still a massive phenomenon due to the persistent

crisis o the countryside caused by the mechanization oagriculture and processes o industrialization. Te cityseems to oer opportunities or employment or at leastsurvival. As a result cities, especially their peripheries anddegraded areas, are overcrowded by internal and interna-tional migrants. Oen municipal governments cannot re-spond to this phenomenon with the needed services andurban inrastructure. Te lack o housing, services, andbasic living conditions leads to waves o social conictand violence in its dierent orms. Tis overall trend hasalso been seen in various orms in Rosario throughout

the twentieth century and up to the present day. Sassen(3) explains that it seems to be part o the so-calledphenomenon o globalization that economic and socialows concentrate in centers and create margins or lessadvantaged spaces. Te increase in criminality and urban

violence appear to be a global symptom o growing in-equality, even creating urban glamour zones and urbanwar zones as she calls them. According to Bauman ()the whole system o global domination is based on theinstitution o urban insecurity that is, deliberately mak-ing people araid and vulnerable so as to easily dominatethem.

2.3. Citizenship and Democracy at the Local Level

as a Framework or Conict Transormation

Conict transormation and peacebuilding rely on valueso cohesion, human rights, and non-violent political ac-tion. Which political rameworks allow these processeso peaceul structural transormation to take place inpractice? Since long-term processes that deal with theroot causes o conict are necessary, the basic rame-work should be one o a democratic society in which theconcept o citizenship has renewed meaning in terms

o political, civil, and economic and social rights. Tediscussion about citizenship and democracy is relevanthere as these concepts are typically used by policymak-ers, donors, and development organizations as cures orsocietys problems.6 Formal or representative democracies

have huge problems in becoming social rameworks orconict transormation. A deep crisis o representation

exists when citizens do not eel that their concerns andvoices are heard or taken into account. Although in prin-ciple everyone is included and part o political society,many actors are in practice excluded and deprived oequal opportunities. Only those with power are involved,excluding large parts o the population.

Violent social conicts reect societys ailure to includeall citizens in public lie and to secure their basic rights,suggesting an insufciently democratic system or alack o democratic governance. In the context o Latin

America, weak institutions are aced with higher demandsand with a greater burden o implementing unpopularreorms and structural adjustments, whether by choice orexternal compulsion. Tese changes are devised to helpregional economies t into the global market economyin a competitive way, sometimes negatively aectingtraditional livelihoods and industries. An institutional-ized process o conict transormation and peacebuild-ing represents a public policy that osters and developsexperiences o participatory democracy. Tis interactionrequires common rules and respect or diversity, which iagreed together prevent violence and create mechanismsor conict transormation. Borja and Castells ()closely relate the status o the citizen to the city. Te cityis where we live as civic beings; it is the urban environ-ment that constantly realizes the sensation o belonging ornot belonging to something called political society. Tisunderstanding o the concept o citizenship linked to thesensation o belonging is useul or studying the processeso social inclusion and exclusion. Youth who are excludedand eel outside o social and economic interactionstry to nd a eeling o belonging and acceptance amongtheir peers, sometimes by joining gangs or through illegal

activities. In the city o Rosario, and in particular amongyoung people, citizenship remains unrealized. Political,social, economic, and cultural rights are key to the peace-ul transormation o conicts, but their ull realizationremains nothing but a promise.

6 Citizenship is a status, social and juridical recogni-tion that a person has rights and duties associatedwith belonging to a community, almost always based

on a common territory or culture. Citizenship ac-cepts dierence but not inequality. All citizens are,in theory, equal. Te concept o citizenship was rst

used in the context o the Greek city-states or po-lis. Polis means place o politics. In Latin, civitas(city) is a place where civic values are exercised.


8/26

79IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


2.4. Methodology and Tools o Analysis

Tis research uses three qualitative data collection tools:

a) participatory observation by the author who is a citizeno Rosario and was a youth worker in Itat neighborhood,a slum area in the South-West District, rom to 3and continued to visit and observe the situation in a sys-tematic way rom 3 to ; b) interviews conductedin December and January with our youngpeople who live in the South-West District, three youthworkers who work within the same district, and moreparticularly in Itat neighborhood, and three representa-tives o the local government, (Municipal Youth Center);and c) analysis o materials produced by youth workers

and youth in slums, including articles oEl ngel de Latamagazine (Angel de Lata ) which is a social projectthat involves several youth organizations and institutionsworking on social inclusion o youth, strongly inspiredand guided by the work o Claudio Pocho Lepratti.7Tis paper also draws on published studies on youth inRosario and criminality in Argentina. It is importantto note that no ormal interviews were conducted withyoung people who were or are engaged in criminal activi-ties as this would have involved investing time in build-ing trust and the use o ethnographic methodologies thatwere not possible given the limited scope o this study.Rather the analysis draws on inormal interactions o theauthor with other young people and on the reectionspublished in El Angel de Lata.

Te main tools o analysis used are: a) Galtungs classi-cation o the three types o violence (direct, structuraland cultural); and b) the ABC triangle, which analysesattitudes, behaviors, and a conict or contradiction (Gal-tung ). Attitudes are emotions, such apathy or hatred,and cognitions include how the parties map the conict.Behavior is the spectrum o acts ranging rom apathy

to violence. Te root o the conict is the contradiction.Galtung states that negative attitudes and behavior arelike metastases to the primary tumor. Tey may become

prime causes in their own right, but the root cause o con-ict is the same: parties that have incompatible goals.

3. Understanding the Problem: Urban Social Conict and Youth in Rosario

Rosarios neighborhoods ollow the center-periphery model.Te center is populated by high- and middle-income ami-lies, and is surrounded by a rst circle o working class andlow-income amilies and a second circle o slums, locallycalled villas miseria. According to data presently availablerom the websites o the municipality and UN-Habitat (UN-Habitat ; Rosario Habitat ), approximately ,

people (3 percent o the population o Rosario) live onland which is not their property in ninety-one irregularsettlements, occupying percent o the citys area (see

7 He was shot by the police on December , ,on the roo o the school where he worked. Humanrights organizations and witnesses argue that hewas shot because his activities mobilized youth andthis was inconvenient or the police. Pocho was

a deeply committed social and youth worker wholived in the slum in Luduea area and organizedactivities or vulnerable youth in the slum, and whostarted youth groups and networks. Te ngel deLata project produces and distributes a magazine

and organizes workshops and social integrationactivities. At the same time, selling the magazine isan income-generating activity or street childrenand youth and their amilies.

Figure 1: Map o Rosario. Irregular settlements are marked in red. Source: Municipality o Rosario


9/26

80IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


Fig. ). However, a report published by the social movementLibres del Sur on December , , estimates that almost

one third o the population o Rosario lives in slums andirregular settlements. Tis situation was aggravated by astorm that le many homeless and led to the establishmento ve new settlements. Te living conditions in these settle-ments are extremely poor and the rates o unemploymentare dramatically high. Most o these settlements are on pub-lic land le unused by the national railway system and someon abandoned private property. Tese settlements have pooraccess to public services such as running water or electricity.

Tis section describes the dierent orms o violence present

in this conict and show how youth criminality is an ex-pression o an urban social conict and a response to struc-tural violence. Direct violence is an expression o structural

violence in the orm o social ragmentation and socioeco-nomic exclusion. Firstly, direct violence is analyzed as thoseacts or behavior that are easily recognizable and whichmost institutions typically consider and measure as violent.Secondly, the links between direct and structural violence inthe lives o young people are analyzed. Lastly, the relation-ships between direct, structural, and cultural violence areexamined, along with the way attitudes inuence youth andstate behavior.

3.1. Direct Violence in Rosario

Provincial police data indicate that in , 3, crimeswere registered in the Rosario department, with 3, in, , in 3, , in and , in (Santa Fe ). A report published by the ArgentineFederal Police based on provincial police data, calculatesthat in percent o all crimes in Rosario were againstproperty and percent against persons (Polica FederalArgentina ). Te increase is substantial when it istaken into consideration that many small thes are not re-

ported. Being robbed and attacked is a common experiencein Rosario. Only a ew o these incidents are reported, orreasons including mistrust o the police and the ineective-ness o the responses that the police and judicial systemsoer. In an interview published in January (ngelde Lata ), El Ale, a ormer street child who lives ina slum and now works in a social project, reported that percent o those who live in the slum are involved in steal-ing or in drug dealing or consumption. He estimates that

out o every twenty pesos acquired rom stealing ten areused or drug consumption and ten are given to the thie s

amily to cover basic needs. Te upper and middle classesoen perceive only the type o direct violence o whichthey are victims, while poorer sectors o society suerharassment and violence perpetrated by the police. Jour-nalist and social worker Osvaldo Aguirre considers thatpolice brutality has increased, especially since whenGovernor Carlos Reutemann took ofce. He describes howthe police operate in a system o impunity. Te judicialsystem hides evidence, delays trials, and protects policeofcers, especially those o higher ranks (Aguirre ).Te priest o Luduea neighborhood, Edgardo Montaldo,

who has been working in the poorest areas o the city orthirty-eight years, explains that the situation is dramatic.He summarizes it in a strong statement: I am againstabortion but also against this system o death: kids commitsuicide, they kill each other or they are killed by the police(Salinas ). Although political violence is not as seriousas in the past or in other Latin American countries, humanrights organizations such as APDH (Asamblea Permanentede Derechos Humanos) claim that the seven persons whowere killed by the police in Rosario during demonstrationson December , , were targets o a deliberate at-tempt by the police to inuse ear among social and politi-cal activists (three were less than eighteen years o age, ourothers under thirty-ve). Tere are many irregularities inthe investigation and to this date no clear results. Only onepolice ofcer has been imprisoned (or the death o Clau-dio Lepratti), while investigations into other cases are slowor have been blocked (Biblioteca Lepratti ). Te policerole is perceived by youth, youth workers, and social activ-ists as repressive and on the side o those who are powerul.Harassment and repression take various orms. Te policetarget poor young people as criminals or potential crimi-nals. Oen they harass them in shanty towns to keep them

in line. An example o this is unjustied detentions osuspects, usually young people o low income and aborigi-nal ethnic background, pejoratively called negros villeros.Social activists are intimidated to promote ear and demo-bilize them. For example, human rights organizations claimthat the deaths o December were meant to intimidateand send the message to social activists that social protestsmust stop and that the police could act with impunity.Social demands are delegitimized in public discourse and


10/26

81IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


media. Protesters are oen reerred to as troublemakers,irresponsible, and lazy people who do not want to work.

Te justice system is selective and corrupt. It punishessome crimes but allows impunity or white-collar crimesand corrupt practices at the higher levels o the politicalspectrum.

3.2. Structural Violence in Rosario

Ciaardini conrms in his recent study () that eventhough statistics are scarce and inaccurate, there has beena considerable increase in crime that is intrinsically relatedto the negative social eects o neoliberal policies. Accord-ing to this criminologist, several studies o Latin American

cities show that those engaged in criminal activity areusually young males who come rom the poorest and mostdisadvantaged neighborhoods. Tis is a tendency observedworldwide in processes o urbanization and industrializa-tion and is consistent with gender roles; usually males areexpected to obtain jobs and provide economic support totheir amilies and are the brave ones (Clinnard and Ab-bott, 3). In relation to the age o oenders, Ciaardininds that during the s in the city o Buenos Airesthe average age o oenders decreased; a tendency alsoobserved in other big cities in Argentina, including Rosario.Beore , crimes were committed mostly by people agedtwenty-six or older. In , the age o oenders startedto decrease prominently and progressively, with a sharpincrease in young oenders aged een to eighteen, aphenomenon rare in previous years. Ciaardini describesin detail that the economic crisis is a determining actor inthe increase o violent crime against property. He explainsthat there is no direct relation between poverty and crime,but between high levels o inequality and crime.

Te relation is complex and various actors are present. It isnot poverty in itsel that provokes young people to rob, but

a combination o relative poverty (increasing inequality)and social exclusion; in other words, becoming poorer andpoorer in relation to others who become richer and richer,and eeling le out. Tis exclusion is also aggravated bythe abrupt deterioration o the socioeconomic conditionsand the lack o opportunities and alternatives. Feelings orustration and anger and sentiments o I dont care aremost common in the sons o those who lost their jobs, whogrew up hearing about a prosperous past and now live

in extreme poverty and marginalization. Exclusion romemployment and educational opportunities, experiences

o amily crisis and even amily violence, combined withsocial discrimination and racism, aect young people indevastating ways. Tey are deprived not only o tools to de-

velop their lie strategies but also o hope in the uture. Tisis clearly shown in the Brazilian movie City o God, whichdepicts the equation youth + misery = violence. Other ac-tors mentioned in Ciaardinis study include the increase inyoung peoples spare time and the increase in their con-sumption o alcohol and illegal drugs. He notes that morethan 3 percent o young people in Argentina neither studynor work, which reects the alarming social exclusion they

suer. Most young people nd great difculties in enteringthe job market. Most study or are underemployed as a sur-vival strategy, as described in the study about being youngin Rosario published by the National University o Rosario(avella ).

Tis exclusion o young people occurs in a context o socialand economic crisis. In Rosario the impact o neoliberaleconomic policies was disastrous or the local economicstructure, and consequently or local social cohesion. Teintroduction o imported products destroyed local in-dustries. As a result unemployment in Rosario graduallyincreased during the s to peak in and has sinceslowly decreased during the present period o recovery.According to the Ministry o Labour o Argentina, 3. per-cent o young people in Rosario were unemployed in ,a gure considerably higher than unemployment amongother segments o the active population (Ministerio de ra-bajo ) Access to education and employment opportu-nities varies rom class to class. In lower income classes, theperiod o adolescence tends to be shorter, as young peopleare pushed to enter the inormal economy, take up respon-sibilities, marry, or migrate.

Te processes o social ragmentation and exclusion thatconstitute structural violence become evident in urbanspace. Research by Gizewski and Homer-Dixon ()reers to it as urban violence, in the orm o criminal andanomic violence. Tis type o violence usually takes theorm o armed robbery, assault, and in some cases murder,oen when the victim resists the attack. Te act that thereis a correlation between the increase in this type o crime in


11/26

82IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


cities and processes o social exclusion is not casual. Tesecrimes are not due to a deviation or the product o evil

criminals behavior; rather, it is the proximity o inequalityand conspicuous indierence and unairness on the part othose who are included that creates the tension. In thissocial space, inequality becomes evident by the dierentavailability o services and inrastructure between rich anddeveloped areas and poor or peripheral neighborhoods:lack o schools, hospitals and recreational areas, decienttransportation services, lack o running water and sewagesystems, inadequate housing. It is exclusion not only romsocial and economic lie, but also rom the social space asocial distance reinorced and perpetuated by physical

distance. It is a social contract which has been broken interms o moral unity and physical proximity. Tose whoare le out live in slums, sometimes even separated by aence or road that police oen reuse to cross. Individualsdo not eel related to societys rules or spaces any more.Tey are physically out.

Despite the heterogeneity o youth, young people can bedivided into two groups: those who have access to basic hu-man rights such as educational opportunities, health, andspaces o expression, and those who do not. Upper class,middle class, and working class young people have relative-ly good access to primary and secondary school educationin the city as well as to basic health services. Secondary andtechnical education is accessible to low-income amiliesas public institutions do not charge registration ees andpublic transportation is subsidized or young people (undereighteen) on weekdays. Tis education is valued as a guar-antee or uture employment. Most middle and upper classyoung people attend private or semi-private institutions.Access to quality education and other cultural servicesreinorces social inequalities and cultural dierentiationamong young people rom dierent social and economic

backgrounds. Language, cultural consumption and habits,and ways o dressing and interacting vary notably romone group to another. Youth are excluded economically,politically, and socially, and this is reected in the physicalspace in certain neighborhood and slums. More specically,Ben-Joseph and Southworth (3) state that children andyouth are deprived o the diversity o city lie as there areew places that they can access and enjoy saely. Cities arenot planned or children and youth; they lack recreational

spaces and youth-riendly participation policies (Driskell). Tese trends can also be observed in the city o

Rosario, as a dual city struggling to become a city or all.Young people in Rosario eel that society has le them outand they seek dierent ways to be included and survive.

Te relationship between structural and direct violence isclear not only in statistics and sociological studies, but alsoin the lie story o El Ale. He is a young boy who grew upin the streets, robbed to survive, and consumed drugs. Hehad extreme experiences and now he takes part in a socialproject that produces a magazine sold by street children,called El ngel de Lata (the angel o tin). He moved to

Rosario rom the northern province o Chaco when he wasnine years old. He had never been to school. He startedwandering in the streets and begging. He was mistreatedand elt discriminated. In an interview, he explains: Iasked mysel why I was poor, when this is a question thatother people have to ask, not poor people themselves. Hedescribes how humiliating it was to eat rom the garbageand how he experienced incipient sexual harassment bythose who have money. He started to consume drugs atthe age o twelve: pills, marihuana, cocaine, and alcohol.An analysis o the story o Ale shows how aware he is othe eects o social exclusion, the links between his lacko opportunities and alternatives and his behavior. Ignati-e s understanding o the concept o citizenship as beinglinked to the sensation o belonging is useul to the studyo processes o social inclusion and exclusion. Youth whoare excluded and eel outside o social and economicows and interactions try to nd a eeling o belonging andacceptance among their peers, sometimes by joining gangsand illegal activities.

In the city o Rosario citizenship remains unrealized,particularly among youth. Political, social, economic, and

cultural rights remain a promise and the realization othese rights is a necessary condition or the peaceul trans-ormation o conicts. Ale is also aware o class structure;he is part o a we who are poor, and there is a they whoare rich. Te critical Marxist approach is helpul as urbanconict is also a conict between those who are excludedand exploited and those who prot and manage the naturaland economic resources. Capital in the present time doesnot need so many workers to reproduce itsel and continue


12/26

83IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


to accumulate wealth. Te excluded constitute the mar-ginal mass that can be unctional i they become able to

consume or enter the labor market. Te system unctional-ity o young people living in extreme poverty in the slumso Rosario is limited. Tey are not qualied workers andthey are not consumers as their buying capacity is limited.Since their unctionality is limited, in a Marxist interpreta-tion, there is no need to include them in the system. Somecriminological theories propose that they should be elimi-nated or kept contained in prison. Tese theories proposeonly the treatment o direct violence and acknowledge nolink between direct violence and structural violence by thedominant class and its state apparatus.

3.3. Cultural Violence in Rosario

In order to reproduce and sustain direct and structuralviolence, repressive state violence must seem legitimate, ac-cepted, normal, and natural. Te legitimization o violenceis subtle and hard to observe or deconstruct. Cultural

violence is violence entrenched in cultural norms, belies,and traditions. Tese belies and norms translate into at-titudes. Galtungs denition o attitudes reers to emotionsand cognitions, that is, the way actors eel and perceivereality and how they map the conict. As direct andstructural violence are legitimatized by a system o beliesthat is expressed in attitudes and behavior, it is importantto understand the attitudes o youth and the state in orderto deconstruct them and build alternatives. Te valuesand attitudes o young people and the state are exploredin the ollowing sections. o what extent is violence seenas a legitimate way o solving problems? o what extent isit seen as the only way to solve problems? o what extentis violence questioned? Te purpose is to nd reasons ortheir choices and behavior. Understanding the perceptionso the actors and their attitudes is important as i these donot change, solutions to direct violence will be temporary

and ineective in the long term.

3.3.1. Values and Attitudes o Youth in Rosario

As previously stated, youth is a very heterogeneous group.Te analysis o the values and attitudes o youth in Rosariois based on several data: the sociological studySer jovenen Rosario, Estrategias de vida, polticas de intervencin ybsquedas flosfcas (Being young in Rosario, strategies olie, intervention policies and philosophical search; avella

), interviews with young people and youth workersduring , and interviews published in El ngel de Lata

(). Te main questions guiding this exploration oattitudes are: How do young people experience, perceive,and dene the conict? What do they see as the causes? Inorder to address these questions it is useul to understandrst the predominant values o young peoples lives, howthe context shapes them and how they see their own situ-ation. Te rst part o analysis is about actors subjectivity,their motivations and values, based on the work o sociolo-gist avella. Tis analysis seeks to determine the degree towhich personal will and external actors determine youthslie strategies and behavior. Te methodology is based on

interviews with young people aged eighteen to twenty-vewho lived in dierent areas o Rosario. Considering thesocial structure and stratication o Rosario the criteriaor selecting interviewees were their type o housing andneighborhood.

Previous sociological studies have established a correspon-dence between levels o income and level o ormal educa-tion and housing. Youth were clustered in three groups:low, medium, and high income, corresponding to youngpeople living in slums and disadvantaged areas, peripheralneighborhoods, and the center/private neighborhoods.Young people in the three groups stated that amily wasthe main value which organized their lives. Teir experi-ences and projects were deeply shaped by their amilies,more than by other actors like personal or proessionalprojects. Te amily connects the individuals to a largergroup, including the extended amily. Te attachmento young people to their amily is reinorced by the acto structural unemployment. In general, young peoplelive with their parents, even when they are employed andwhen they become parents themselves, as wages are lowand unemployment is high. Tis is a strategy or sharing

living costs. All cases that were studied had as their mainlie project to orm a amily and get married at around theage o thirty with an average o two children. Family seemsto be a reuge in times o crisis and a way to belong to thegroup. As Ale states during his interview, hal o what heobtained through robbery was or his amily and the restor himsel. His amily and his mother were the highest

value in his view and what nally helped him to be able tochange his lie. Young people o middle and high income


13/26

84IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


value the status o student, and there is a social traditionthat young people should study. For young people o middle

and high income, studying is seen as a way o improv-ing uture employability and as benecial or personaldevelopment. In contrast, among young people rom lowincome amilies, studying is more a struggle than a reality.For example, Romina is still trying to nish her secondaryeducation at the age o twenty-two, aer having a baby. Shedreams o becoming a psychologist or an English teacher,but her real possibilities o having access to university areew. Te higher the income o the amily, the more proes-sional and educational choices related to vocation, and lessto economic needs. Young people are to some extent aware

that their entrance in the job market is strongly inuencedby the global and national economic situations. Tey areaware that there is a general economic crisis. Tey are alsoaware that young people who are not qualied are not

valued as a production actor. Tey know that i they do nothave education they will have less employment opportuni-ties. Tis realization generates insecurity in all social classes,but those who have access to education and are part o socialnetworks deal better with the crisis and nd their way. Ingeneral, they perceive exclusion rom the labor market asa social general problem, not as a personal ailure. Tosewho are educated are aware o the limitations but still havehope. However, Manuela cannot see any uture and triesto nd temporary solutions to avoid rustration. She alsoexpresses her disempowerment when she says, I am silly, Icant learn, taking it as a personal limitation. Tis is how asituation provoked by structural violence is perceived as ate,natural, or normal, and the individual eels guilty or it. Tisperception is part o cultural violence. It puts the blame onthe individual and prevents people rom questioning the realcauses o their problems.

During their ree time, young people in Rosario spend a lot

o time with their amily, riends, and boyriend/girlriend.One common eature among the three groups o youth is therequency o alcohol consumption. According to a surveyconducted among secondary school students o all socialbackgrounds in Rosario, published in August , per-

cent drink alcohol on a regular basis, especially at night, and percent admitted having been drunk at least once. Most

say that they drink to eel good and to orget problems(La Capital ). Police and ofcial statistics denounce theincrease in the use o drugs among young people o all socialbackgrounds in the city (La Capital ). Tese patterns obehavior become apparent at night. According to a study oyouth behavior at night in the city o Buenos Aires, sociolo-gist Mario Margulis () states that the city at night isa new territory and oers a liberating illusion. Youth canree themselves o the weight o domination and rules thatare imposed on them by school, work, and amily. At nightthey can be themselves, eel accepted, and have a sense o

belonging when hanging out with their riends in what arecolloquially known as urban tribes. avellas study alsohighlights a lack o interest in religion and other activitiesthat have to do with reecting on the purpose and meaningo their lives. Tere is little or no engagement in public lie.Tere is no trust or belie in social solidarity or in belongingto a larger entity. Tese perceptions o young people show ussome interesting acts. Economic crisis and structural unem-ployment create a high degree o uncertainty, helplessness,and indierence. Friends and amily are a reuge, the onlypeople in whom they can trust and on whom they can rely.Uncertainty also determines their choices or short term so-lutions, as well as the need to enjoy today and avoid think-ing o the uture, which promotes hedonism, that is, pleasureand consumption during ree time or example. Teseattitudes are present in all young people, but they becomemore conspicuous in those who belong to gangs. Te gang isthe replacement or amily; youths in gangs only care abouttoday and eel that they have nothing to lose. In this context,the social crisis invades personal space, and creates in themthe eeling that their destinies are determined by the changesin society, and not by their personal eorts. It is the otherwho is a ailure, it is the society that has ailed, so why

should I pay the costs? they ask themselves. It is interestingto note that El Ale acknowledges that even when there ispoverty, mistreatment, there is a part within yoursel thatsays yes [to drugs and robbery].8 He considers that his liechoices were highly determined by his history o exclusion

8 In Spanish, Pero aunque haya pobreza, maltrato,tens un porcentaje del que dice s sos vos.


14/26

85IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


and poverty. At the same time he has the capacity to realizeor himsel what was good and bad or him, or perhaps his

own choices in determining the uture.

3.4. How Youth Perceive and Defne the Conict

When interviewed, young middle class people who live inSouth West District, a peripheral area in Rosario, said that

violence (meaning direct violence) and a lack o securitywas the main problem in their neighborhood (as do main-stream media and public opinion polls)9. Some o themwent on to mention police brutality, gangs, indierenceo the citizens, and drug addiction, which are all relatedto the issue o violence and vandalism in the streets. Tey

acknowledge that both youth gangs and police behave vio-lently and that this is an undesirable way o behaving. It isinteresting to note that young people who were gang mem-bers, like El Ale, acknowledge the use o violence as away to survive and live. When they are trapped by violence,they see it as the only instrument to become powerul, tobe seen and taken seriously. Tey justiy their actions bysaying that their intentions are to steal only rom thosewho are rich. Tey see that structural violence provokesthem and prepares them to behave violently. In this sense,youth in gangs see violence as the only way to behave. Teysee violence as an eective and legitimate way o solvingtheir problems.

Only some manage to question violence and acknowledgethe links between direct and structural violence. Wheninterviewees were asked about the causes o the increase indelinquency, they indicated both the lack o ways to stopthe direct violence (not enough police) and the presence ostructural violence (the lack o education and employment).Tere is awareness that the root cause o the social conictis not simply inequality, but the eeling that this inequal-ity is unair. One o the answers also places blame on the

individuals as criminals and drug addicts. It is importantto highlight that the youth interviewed acknowledge thelinks between direct and structural violence and that theysee that it is not in the nature o young people to be violent.Violence in all its orms is questioned. However, violence

used by the police to repress the rebels is sometimes con-sidered desirable and necessary by the youth interviewed.

Te use o orce by the state is seen as legitimate, althoughas a limited and short-term answer. All the intervieweespoint out that youth and state actors are responsible orwhat happens. wo o them included themselves as re-sponsible as well. Cultural violence seems more difcult oryoung people to identiy as a problem and it is usually notquestioned or considered as real violence. Young peopleconsume movies, video-games, derogatory language, and

jokes in which violence is present, and there seems to bemuch higher acceptance o non-physical violence it issocially acceptable to humiliate and verbally discriminate.

Youth who live in the slums are oen discriminated againstbecause o the place where they live and oen because otheir skin color and appearance. Tere is a lot o subtleracism, especially against those who have darker skin. Temost aected are groups o indigenous or mixed origin,mostly originally rom the northern provinces and otherLatin American countries (Bolivia, Peru, and Paraguay).In an interview published in El Angel de Lata, El Ale de-scribes suering rom discrimination, which he acknowl-edges as a problem. At the same time, it is common amongyouth in gangs and youth o similar ethnic background touse racist insults with each other, such as negro de mierda.Tere is tendency to neglect and deny their own identityand try to become whiter or look and act dierently.Another alarming aspect o cultural violence is that thereseems to be no acknowledgment o gender discrimination.Tis becomes evident in jokes, songs, and popular expres-sions we observed that contain derogatory words. It isinteresting to note that emale youth who were intervieweddid not mention this as an issue.

4. State Discourses

On one occasion, El Ale was assaulted by an older man.

He went to the police station to seek help, but the policedid not believe him and even shouted insults at him (vil-lero de mierda) and threatened to keep him in jail. Tisshows how the police discriminate and stereotype, and howthese perceptions legitimize the use o violence to respond

9 Similar answers can be expected rom any otherarea o the city.


15/26

86IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


to a perceived problem o criminality. Te discourses and

actions o the state on the issue o youth criminality arevarious and complex. Te state intervenes in multiple andcontradictory ways at both the provincial municipalitylevels, based on theories o social behavior and criminol-ogy. Oen policies are not based on research and data thattake into consideration the eects o the past applicationo policies based on these theories. Tis article ocuses onanalyzing the discourses and attitudes in two institutions asrepresentative o existing discourses in all state institutions:the provincial police and the municipal government withits youth and social inclusion policies.

Te responses o state institutions include both attempts tocontrol violence using orce (repression, jail) and policieso social inclusion and participation. Even though the useo violence is seen as undesirable, it is sometimes consid-ered necessary by the police and policy-makers and theresources deployed and action taken do not always cor-respond to the promises and rhetoric. In reality, violence isstill used as means o social control and, paradoxically, asa means to stop violence. Te increase in crime has shownthat this response has not been eective in solving theproblem. Several criminology theories can be identiedas the basis o the states multiple, and sometimes erratic,responses to the issue o youth criminality. Ciaardini() clusters them in our main currents. Te rst one isrepresented by Beccaria, and considers that crime shouldbe naturally ollowed by a punishment; criminal prob-lems can be solved by improving laws and increasing theamount o punishment. Beccarias idea is that criminalsdo not eel sufciently threatened by a possible punish-ment when they commit crimes. His ideas are still presentin policies and state discourses. For example, the responseto the problem o the maras, youth criminal gangs in El

Salvador, Honduras, and Guatemala, has been an increasein the length o jail sentences or gang members and lead-ers. In the province o Buenos Aires, Argentina, similar

zero tolerance policies have been applied. However, the

amount o crime and violence has not decreased in any

o these cases. A second criminology theory is the onerepresented by Bentham and Lombroso. Criminals are so-cially or biologically ill, thereore, they need to be cured orreormed. I they cannot be cured or reormed, they shouldbe excluded rom society. Criminals have a natural or bio-logical disposition or violence. Could the attempts to buildwalls around slums (un)consciously this theory reect inpractice? A third current is the one identied as the soci-ology o deviation, to which sociologists like Durkheimand Merton have contributed. Te general principle is thatsocieties need to coexist with a certain amount o crime

which is unctional or the system. Criminals should bepunished and, in this way, they provide a service to societyby serving as an example helping to prevent general socialanomie. I crime increases to a level that the society cannothandle, social reorm should be considered.

Finally, the last current is a critical one which appearedin Europe in the s, inspired by Marxism. Te rootcauses o criminality were seen in the negative eects o thecapitalist system. Ciaardini concludes that a critical ap-proach considers that capitalism, as a system that producesalienation and social injustice, must inherently bring orthcrime.10 Tere were no concrete proposals to respond tocriminality; rather the proposal was to abolish capitalismas a whole, based on the idea that a new society with social

justice and equality would not produce criminals, ascapitalism did.

4.1. Santa Fe Provincial Police Discourses

Te police are under the jurisdiction o the provincial gov-ernment, which was run by the Peronist Party until .11wo main approaches towards the problem o youth crimi-nality are observable in police discourses and attitudes. Te

rst is predominantly linked to the need or security andproposes as a solution increasing the police presence in thestreets o Rosario. Te second acknowledges a link betweenstructural violence and the increase in criminality, and

10 In the Spanish original, el capitalismo tiene uneecto crimingeno.

11 Te Socialist Party won the elections in and on December , , Hermes Binner, ormermayor o Rosario, took ofce as the rst socialistgovernor o a province in Argentina.


16/26

87IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


the need to respond accordingly to citizens needs. Eorts

are being made to transorm policies and practices butauthoritarian belies and practices remain in use, inheritedrom a long past o military dictatorships. Within the rstapproach, the ideology o violence is present and is consid-ered necessary and legitimate whenever it serves to achievecertain ends. Te use o orce is considered the only pos-sibility to control disorder and the undisciplined masses.According to the provincial police, hundreds o adolescentsand youth congregate in the streets at night, especially dur-ing weekends and at night, with clear signs o alcoholismand use o drugs.

Tere are no specic studies that look into how the policeanalyze this problem, what they consider to be the maincauses and ways to solve them. However, observations andgeneral tendencies suggest that the treatment ranges romturning a blind eye to harassment and repression based onthe underlying belie that some youth are inerior or exhibitdeviant behavior and consequently consume drugs and aresocially ill. Tis belie could be linked to Benthams andLombrosos theories. A second approach is also present. Ina democratic society, the role o the police is understood byChie Inspector Victor Sarnaglia, Director o the School oCadets o Santa Fe Province, as the caretaker o the citizen,as described in an interview with the author in May .Te police exist to protect and serve citizens and to ensurethat the law is respected. In the ofcial discourse, the policeorces are subject to the control o democratic electedauthorities. In act, it is clear that this concept is not yet areality. Te rst approach considers that the cause o the

violence is the lack o moral conduct o the aggressors, theirwrong and anti-social behavior which needs to be con-tained or reormed. Tere is a clear link both to Lombrosostheories and to the theory o deviation o Durkheim and

Merton. Te individual does not accept the rules o societyand thereore exhibits deviant behavior. Tus, this is nota problem o the society but a problem o the individual.Te cause o the conict is that individuals ail to adapt tosocietys rules, thereore the response is to reorm, cure, or

exclude the individuals. o understand this approach one

needs to understand how the idea o the modern state wasborn and is justied. Te state was needed to guaranteeorder and personal reedoms through having the monopolyo the use o orce. Nevertheless, when these models areconronted with reality, we witness that citizens eel lesssecure; they eel that the covenant has been violated by theabuse o power, and thereore question obedience to anunjust system.

Te second discourse is a democratic one; there is a needto promote human rights and social justice to prevent vio-

lence. Tis approach ocuses on the link between criminal-ity and the exclusion caused by unequal access to politicalspaces and economic resources it is linked to the criticalcriminology which considers that the capitalist systemitsel produces crime by causing inequality. I the causeso the conict are inequality and exclusion, thereore, theresponse is to diminish or eliminate them both. Tis hasbeen shown by moderate social policies o socioeconomicredistribution and inclusion (employment, health andeducation) and democratic reorms o the school cur-riculum and the way the police operate. Aer the wave odemocratization during the s, the police and armedorces started introducing human rights elements in theirtraining. In the case o Santa Fe province, a provinciallaw o mandated that all educational institutions othe province should introduce human rights education.Primary and secondary schools and tertiary institutions in-troduced elements o human rights education in textbooksand in the curriculum, mostly limited to studying humanrights documents and the constitution. In the case o policetraining, a specic one-year course called Human Rightswas introduced in as part o the Study Program orPolice Cadets.12 Te rst module o the course includes the

ollowing topics: the historical development o law roma Jewish-Christian perspective; theory o law as a limit onabsolute state power; the Bible; the position o man beoreGod; the rst, second, and third generations o humanrights; the Second World War and its atrocities; and the au-

12 It is worth mentioning that the police cadetstraining program consists o three years o studies,while police agents training consists o a mini-

mum o three months up to one year depending onneeds and resources and the particular part o theprovince where the school is located.


17/26

88IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


thoritarian juridical discourse; the phenomenon in Argen-

tina. Te second module includes democratic stages; thedemocratic government o 3; dierent discourses abouthuman rights violations during the dictatorship (3);new phenomena (inequality, poverty, discrimination); theconstitution o . Reading the program o the rst twomodules, we observe that it is o great signicance that newissues have been included, especially social and economicrights. It is also important to note a subtle wording: dier-ent discourses about the violations o human rights. Fromobservation and literature, we know that some sectors opolitical and police authorities still question the reality o

the number o the desaparecidos. Tey still believe in thelegitimacy o the dirty war as a way to save the countryrom alling into chaos, disorder, and the threat o Com-munism during the s and early s. Inside the policeinstitution, dierent currents and tendencies coexist, andare in conict and compromise at the same time. Otherpositive achievements o the democratic approach are theorganization o seminars and the publication o articles onhuman rights and building a society without violence inthe ofcial police magazine. Why do states which claim toprotect their citizens oen violate the rights that they aresupposed to guarantee? Tese two discourses, the demo-cratic and the repressive, both inuence public policy andtheir orced coexistence creates ongoing tension.

Sociologist Loic Wacquant () explains this phenom-enon by describing how the state has traditionally takenup a number o apparently complementary roles that arein act contradictory. Te main challenge or the state is toconstantly overcome this contradiction. Tese roles are: todevelop national economies, to mitigate negative economiceects, and to maintain public order. o ulll these rolesthe state needs a police orce and a penal system to en-

orce the law. Nevertheless, the roles o the state have beenredened by neoliberal ideology.1 Tis ideology maintainsthat markets do not need regulation, as they are a naturalphenomenon and the most eective way to organize hu-man activity. Under this ideology, states had to liberalize

markets and deregulate the economy. But these neoliberal

recipes had disastrous eects: destruction o nationalindustries, unemployment, increasing poverty, and carelessprivatization o public services which le the most vulner-able without access to water and other basic services. In thecase o Argentina, neoliberal policies were aggravated bynancial and economic mismanagement and corruption othe state, wrongly advised by the International MonetaryFund (IMF). In his book, Las crceles de la miseria (Pris-ons o poverty; ), Loic Wacquant argues that

Te increase o carceral populations in advanced societies is due to thegrowing use o the penal system as an instrument or managing social

insecurity and containing the social disorders created at the bottom othe class structure by neo-liberal policies o economic deregulation andsocial-welare retrenchment. ... Te penalisation o poverty is designedto manage the eects o neo-liberal policies at the lower end o the socialstructure o advanced societies. Te harsh police practices and extendedprison measures adopted today throughout the continent are indeed partand parcel o a wider transormation o the state, a transormation whichis itsel called or by the mutation o wage labor and precipitated by theoverturning o the inherited balance o power between the classes andgroups ghting over control o both employment and the state.

As described in the previous section, many o the youngpeople in Rosario who were le out o the neoliberalsystem and became unemployed turned to activities in theinormal/illegal economy or got pushed directly or indi-rectly into criminal activities such as smuggling and drugdealing. Te state reduced its social welare provision andwas orced to increase its police role to contain and tacklethe disorder and the amount o illegal activities. Politi-cians want citizens to believe that the state is reacting tocrime and insecurity in a determined way so they makespeeches calling or the building o new prisons and morepatrol cars and police on the streets. Politicians react to thedemands o the people or more security and get electedthrough use o this dominant discourse. Politicians also use

a moralistic discourse, calling or a return to moral valueso honesty and obedience as crime increases. Tere is astrong tendency to think in a reactive way, rather than interms o looking at and dealing with the root causes o theproblems. On the other hand, some analysts all into the

13 One o the leading proponents o neoliberalismwas Milton Friedman, http://www.ideachannel.com/Friedman.htm. For a more critical analysis, see

Pierre Bourdieu, Le Monde, December , http://www.analitica.com/bitblioteca/bourdieu/neoliberal-ism.asp


18/26

89IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


trap o relating poverty and crime directly, when the situa-

tion is ar more complex and poverty is not the direct causeo the increase in crime, as has been explained extensivelyby Ciaardinis study ().14

In conclusion, the dual discourse is produced by the actthat one part o the states policy (the police and penaljustice systems) is required to counteract or deal with theeects o another part o state policy, namely economicpolicy (Wacquant, ). Tis leads to a situation in whichthe polices role is to repress, contain, control, and man-age these eects. In this scenario, police orces are trapped

between clear demands rom the political authorities anda democratic discourse o respect or human rights. Tisdual and contradictory discourse contributes to lack otrust by young people and citizens in general in their rep-resentatives, their police, and the justice system, wideningthe gaps and increasing social tension and ragmentation.A previous section described the various types o violencewhich young people are part o and aected by, and theway the youth and the police perceive the problem throughtheir discourses and attitudes. Trough the story o ElAle it has become evident how structural and culturalviolence eed into the recurrence o direct violence, andhow violence as a way to solve social conicts has not beeneective and has made the situation worse. Te ollowingsection examines the response to the problem in urtherdetail, looking at the policies o the provincial and munici-pal governments and the actions o youth organizations aspossible ways o dealing with the complex issues o youthcriminality and exclusion.

4.2. Santa Fe Provincial Policies: A Dual Response to the Problem

Te province o Santa Fe is in charge o the judicial system(including the provincial ombudsperson and the human

rights ministry), the police, education, health, and econom-ic policy. Even though various governors express in publicspeeches the provinces commitment to the reintegrationo young delinquents and the need or social inclusion and

preventive policies, the budget allocated to these actions is

limited in comparison to actions enhancing, expanding, andbuilding new prisons, buying new police cars, and improv-ing the repressive system (Santa Fe ). Te provincesprograms put emphasis on building inrastructure, promot-ing economic development, sustaining the judicial system,education by means o building new schools and maintain-ing the existing ones, and social promotion (Del Frade3a). Tere is a small Youth Department which is part othe Community Promotion Secretariat. Even though thesituation o youth in marginalized areas is alarming, thereis no youth participation policy. A new project to work with

young people in conict with the law is being developed,but its implementation has not started yet.

Prisons and police are not prepared to deal with youngpeople and prisons do not help young people to reintegrateinto society, as evidenced by the number o reoenders(Del Frade 3b). Te Supreme Court o the Provincesent a report to the Governor on October stat-ing the alarming situation in prisons and police stations,which are overcrowded and where human rights are notrespected. According to this report, or example, Rosariospolice stations were holding approximately , prisonerswhere there was capacity or just . Another alarmingact is that there are , people, most o them young,were detained but not tried in court (Rosario ). Tisreport was also a response to incidents in the main provin-cial prison in the city o Coronda during April wherethirteen prisoners were killed, all o them under twenty-sixyears o age. It is interesting to note that the average age othe most dangerous prisoners is thirty. It is shocking thatthe age o oenders has been decreasing even to the ex-treme that children aged eight to twelve have been detainedor crimes involving possession o arms (Vsquez ).

El ngel de Lata published a report on detention andrehabilitation centers or youth that belong to the Director-ate o Minors in Conict with the Law. Te report indicatedthat according to calculations o employees o the centers

14 Loic Wacquant adds: o oppose the penaliza-tion o social precariousness, a threeold battle mustbe waged. First o all, on the level owords anddiscourses, one must put the brakes on the semantic

dris that lead, on the one hand, to compressingthe space o debate (e.g. by limiting the notion oinsecurity to physical or criminal insecurity, to theexclusion o social and economic insecurity) and,

on the other, to the banalization o the penal treat-ment o tensions linked to the deepening o socialinequalities (through the use o such vague andincoherent notions as urban violence).


19/26

90IJ CV : Vol. 2 (1) 2008,pp. 72 97


there are about two hundred young people under the age

o eighteen in Rosario living temporarily in these centers.15According to the employees interviewed by the magazine,in general these young people commit crimes repeatedly.Tey conrm that social policy ails to integrate the di-erent phases o rehabilitation or children and youth whohave committed crimes. Aer they leave these centers,there is no ollow-up or social saety net to support andhelp these children and young people. Te employeescriticize the lack o appropriate programs to guaranteethat young people have social support and help them tond the work or which they were prepared in the centers.

Employees o these centers see that their work is only adrop in the ocean and that their only tools are love andpatience. Employees interviewed state that youth leavethe centers with no prospects or the uture and they robagain. Another employee o one o the centers says thatthere is no preventive work and that workshops which aimto promote the value o work, ail. What they preach iscontradicted by the act that they are oen unregisteredemployees and their workers rights are violated. Ac-cording to Gabriela, the state has abandoned its role oguaranteeing social solidarity. She suggests that ollow-uppolicies need to be discussed in depth rather than pursu-ing quick and demagogic solutions o more repression.Tis repressive perspective became evident in a statementmade by the Provincial Director o the Directorate oMinors in Conict with the Law about young delinquents:Tey do not want reinsertion, they want punishment(ngel de Lata ). I the state uses violence, it teachesthrough example that violence is an eective tool. Tiscontradiction is oen present in many state institutions:or example, the most common reaction o a teacher orheadmaster to an act o indiscipline or bad behavior isto ignore, punish, or expel the student. Te state is doing

the same to its citizens; it is ignoring, punishing, and

pushing them urther out o the system. Tis ideology and

behavior is a threat to democracy and should be calledinto question and replaced by more peaceul alterna-tives. In the next section, some ideas or improvement arepresented.

4.3. Recommendations or Improving the Provincial Governments Policy

Although there have been various improvements, someareas require immediate solutions structural changes atthe same time. Tis section aims to indicate recommenda-tions or improvement, although this list is by no meanscomprehensive. Te security and judicial system should

be reormed to include preventive measures, and not onlyto ollow a repressive and reactive approach which seemsto only worsen the situation o vulnerable youth. A newapproach to security must be developed in which the statedevelops and commits to use non-violent means. Morecomprehensive approaches should be promoted such asthe concept o urban human security based on the ulll-ment o basic human needs at the local level. In relationto this, judges and police should be better trained to workwith juvenile delinquents and psychologists, social andyouth workers should have a more predominant role inpublic programs. Changes should be introduced in theoverall process o training o all those working with youngpeople, both in the content/curriculum and in the meth-odologies. Young people learn rom example, so all stateactions should be a model o non-violent behavior. Es-pecially, police training should improve its human rightseducation to include conict literacy, non-violence, andpsychological aspects relating to drug addiction. Finally,cooperation between provincial and municipal programsand civil society organizations should be enhanced. Allactors should engage in critically analyzing and decon-structing their discourses to identiy and remove those

assumptions and elements that lead to violent practices.

15 In Rosario, there are our centers or minors inconict with the law:) IRAR (Instituto de Rehabilitacin del Adoles-cente Rosario or Institute or the Reh

Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conflict in the City of Rosario, a Analysis and Proposals of...

Documents

Transcript of Youth Criminality and Urban Social Conflict in the City of Rosario, a Analysis and Proposals of...