Territories of Violence ― State, Marginal Youth, and Public Security in Honduras

Territories of Violence examines the persistence of social violence and public insecurity in contemporary Honduras. Using a spatial perspective, the author looks at the Honduran state's security polices - known as Mano Dura - and the challenges authorities face in decreasing violence, delinquency, and crime in marginal neighborhoods, which are controlled by the maras, Mara Salvatrucha and the 18th Street Gang, and certain regions, due to the presence of organized crime. She argues that security policies fail not only because of the weakness of Honduras' state institutions, but also because of the state's historical difficulty producing and ordering political territory and space, which has led to the emergence of territories of violence.

Lirio Gutierrez Rivera is an Anthropologist and Political Scientist. She was Postdoctoral Researcher at the desigualdades Research Network and at the Center of Area Studies and was Adjunct Lecturer at the Institute for Latin American Studies at the Freie Universitat Berlin, Germany.