RIGHTS-LATAM: Novel Approaches to Curbing Violence

By Mario Osava Reprint | | Print |

Mario Osava

RIO DE JANEIRO, Jul 30 1999 (IPS) - More than 60 Latin American mayors and experts gathered Thursday and Friday in Rio de Janeiro to share novel approaches to curbing all forms of violence, especially domestic abuse.

Innovative efforts against violence ranging from the use of yellow and red cards for traffic violators to bans on sales of alcohol after midnight and educational programmes on tolerance and coexistence were discussed by the gathering sponsored by the Inter- American Development Bank (IDB) and the Rio de Janeiro city government.

In Cali, one of the most dangerous cities in Colombia, which in turn is the most violent country in Latin America, a multifaceted programme implemented by former mayor Rodrigo Guerrero cut the murder rate by 30 percent, to 86 per 100,000 inhabitants, in 1997.

The campaign began with a survey that found that crime was the most pressing concern of local residents, that 66 percent of all murders were committed over the weekend, mainly during the nighttime, and that most homicide cases involved alcohol abuse, Guerrero told participants in the conference.

After finding that violence was a major obstacle to development in Latin America, the world’s most violent region after sub- Saharan Africa, the IDB has sponsored studies and programmes in the region for the past four years.

Violence has an estimated cost of 24.7 and 24.9 percent of gross domestic product in Colombia and El Salvador, 12.3 percent in Mexico, 11.8 percent in Venezuela and 10.5 percent in Brazil – the most violent countries in Latin America.

In Chile, physical abuse was found to be present in one quarter of all households, and pyschological abuse in one-third, said Cecilia Penaloza, in charge of prevention of domestic violence in the Municipality of Santiago.

More than 40 percent of non-single adult women in the Chilean capital reported having suffered physical abuse.

A survey of eighth-grade students in Santiago came up with even more alarming results: 63 percent of respondents said they had suffered physical abuse at home, and 34 percent said they had been subjected to severe abuse, said Mayra Buvinic, head of the social development division of the IDB.

The problem is present throughout Latin America, where 30 to 50 percent of women suffer domestic violence – psychological, physical or sexual – according to Andrew Morrison, an IDB expert involved in a programme designed to prevent and address domestic violence in six countries of the region.

Statistics show that in Rio de Janeiro, women and children face the greatest danger in their homes on Mondays, followed by Saturdays and Sundays – interpreted as the effect of the weekend’s excesses.

A ban on the sale of alcohol in the early hours of the morning was shown to be a decisive factor in cutting the murder rate in both Cali and Bogota.

Banning the carrying of weapons, at least on the weekend, would have been another important measure, but was blocked by the armed forces, lamented Guerrero.

Colombia is an enormous laboratory for reaching an understanding of the phenomenon of violence, which is growing in cities throughout the world, and for developing techniques for preventing and addressing the problem of violence.

As mayor of Cali, Guerrero prompted the creation of Security Councils, educational methods for promoting tolerance and coexistence, community events like local olympics and a system for obtaining reliable statistics and information on violence.

Former mayor Antanas Mockus, meanwhile, promoted a civic culture of coexistence and the peaceful resolution of conflicts in Bogota.

Besides banning sales of alcohol after midnight, he used novel approaches to curbing the rates of violent and accidental deaths by applying yellow and red warning and expulsion cards, like those used in football, in regulating traffic. The cards and other measures cut the ratio of fatal traffic accidents from 25 to 20 per 100,000 inhabitants.

The “vaccine against violence,” a method used by pyschologists to treat wife and child batterers by inducing the patient to recall the abuse suffered in childhood and demonstrate it by using dolls, for example, has been utilised in 45,000 cases in Bogota.

And in his aim to disarm the population, Mockus turned to churches for assistance, in the face of resistance by the armed forces, collecting over 2,500 guns.

The former mayor asserted that cultural and moral norms were more effective than legal regulations in fighting violence. Guilt, shame, social stigma, moral gratification and community acceptance outweigh the scant influence of the law, he argued.

The IDB’s Buvinic pointed out that while violence was “multifaceted,” expressed in a number of forms and the consequence of a range of factors, which can occur in different combinations depending on the country or city, she stressed that some means of prevention, like social participation, worked across the board.