Prevention of Organized Youth Violence

In the field of youth, youth violence has become an important question in the light of the magnitude that the phenomenon has gained over the past decade in Latin America. Traditional policies, often repressive, have largely proved to be ineffective to combat this kind of violence. Moreover, rehabilitation while necessary has prove to be an expensive approach and sometimes inefficient. This is why UNESCO emphasizes a preventive approach that considers both: youth as victims and as perpetrators of violence.

In this context, the module “youth and prevention of youth organized violence in Latin America" of the MOST tool in its mission to promote civic engagement of youth by developing their sociopolitical capacities in terms of human rights, seeks to provide research findings and experience on practical implementation of integrated policies and actions to prevent violence. This approach considers prevention as the promotion of youth development and social inclusion of young people.

To facilitate the policy briefs’ research, the different sets of variables are classified according to 2 lines in order to:

1. Characterizing the specific nature of organized youth violence confronting society: The objective is to identify a particular combination of factors that lead to organized youth violence, whether because they are exclusive: socio-economic degradation of the institutions and socialization, and / or inclusive: alternative socialization means proposed by the gang violence.
2. To identify the existing strategies, initiatives and/or recommendations to address organized youth violence: The second set of variables allow to select the identified strategies and initiatives by: the type of policy to which they are part of, the line of youth development they support, the type of entity that leads it and/or by the institutional level at which they are implemented.