 Deportations and the transnational roots of gang violence in Central AmericaChristian Ambrosius World Development, 2021, vol. 140, issue C Abstract: It has often been claimed that the violent gangs that haunt Central America today are rooted in urban metropoles of the United States and have been exported to Central America through the deportation of convicted gang members. This case study on El Salvador provides econometric evidence that the deportation of convicts led to the spread of gangs along migration corridors. Cross-sectional analysis at the subnational level reveals that migrants’ municipalities of origin have a higher probability of gang presence today when migrant corridors developed around US destinations with high incidences of violent crime before migrants arrived. The cross-sectional evidence is backed by panel data analysis that allows testing the underlying mechanism. The inflow of convicted felons translated into rising homicide rates along migration corridors, whereas the inflow of non-convicts did not increase violence. In sum, the inflow of deported convicts constituted an exogenous spark of violence that had large and lasting consequences in countries that lacked the social, institutional and economic capacities to control the spread of gangs. Keywords: Deportations; Gang Violence; Central America (search for similar items in EconPapers) Downloads: (external link) Related works: Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:eee:wdevel:v:140:y:2021:i:c:s0305750x20305015 DOI: 10.1016/j.worlddev.2020.105373 Access Statistics for this article World Development is currently edited by O. T. Coomes More articles in World Development from Elsevier |
Is your work missing from RePEc? Here is how to contribute.
Questions or problems? Check the EconPapers FAQ or send mail to .
EconPapers is hosted by the
School of Business at Örebro University.