Researching-the-Urban-Dilemma-Baseline-study

intimidation or extortion by organized criminals in slums – are thus frequently blurred and difficult to parse
apart. As such, neighborhood gangs and vigilante groups may mobilize for the purposes of self-defense or
predation, but, alternately, can put themselves at the service of politicians and business people as has been
the case from Lagos 145 and Port-of-Spain to Dili and Jakarta. 146 Similarly, sexual and gender-based violence can
be used simultaneously as a political tool by elite interests and armed groups, or to exert social power within
urban households. 147 In some cities, overlapping forms of violence appear to be mutually reinforcing in
complex ways – leading in some cases to a form of “urbicide”, or destruction of the city. 148
Figure 2: Framing the impacts of urban violence
Death, injury and
victimization
Forced displacement and
migration
Social capital and
cohesion
Socio-economic welfare
and econmoic
productivity
Governance and the
social contract
While many of the direct physical manifestations of urban violence are documented, its indirect consequences
are often more intangible and difficult to track. Urban violence is most clearly expressed by the annual tally of
conflict deaths, homicides, assaults, robberies and sexual violence. Yet it is underneath the surface that the
medium- to long-term effects of urban violence are extensive. It is also detected in transformed livelihoods,
voluntary and involuntary migration patterns to, from and within affected neighborhoods, and the
reconfiguration of social and market organization and the legitimacy of municipal institutions. Urban violence
transforms the administrative, symbolic and material landscapes of inner cities and suburban neighborhoods.
Pervasive fear, for example, can lead to the physical separation of “insecure” zones from surrounding areas by
urban planners and the police, resulting in new transport corridors and roads, surveillance, walls and gates. 149
The restricted access of residents living in high-crime neighborhoods to social and economic opportunities on
the “outside” can in turn reinforce their sense of exclusion and segregation as predicted by social
disorganization and stress theorists. These sentiments can give rise not only to social and psychological
145 See Ismail (2009).
146 Jutersonke et al (2009). See also Muggah (2010).
147 See Krause et al (2011).
148 The term urbicide emerged in the 1960s as way of describing how complex forms of structural and proximate violence (including
massive urban restructuring) can result in the destruction of particular areas of cities. There is considerable debate on the concept. See
Coward (2009) and Campbell et al (2007).
149 See Rodgers (2011), Shapiro (2009), Lemanski (2006), Caldeira (2000, 1996), and Glassner (1999).
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