Violence Reduction and Social Inclusion in Ecuador: Legalizing Street Gangs and Declining Rates of Homicide

David Brotherton, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

Research Grant, 2018

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The year of research I conducted on this project was characterized by both internal crises within the three groups I have been studying for many years and massive sociopolitical upheavals in Ecuador. These crises had an impact on the amount of field research that could be achieved, while at the same time creating new research questions and areas of study on the topic of societal violence, and in particular the issue of homicide reduction.

In March, we restarted our field work in Quito in collaboration with our partners at the Catholic University (PUCE). We wanted to understand better how the relationship between this mainstream institution and a major national street organization (gang) had evolved as part of the ongoing policy of gang legalization.

[D]espite a freezing of relationships between the state and these street organizations, the prosocial gains made during the decade of gang legalization are still relevant.

We documented the various projects of this collaboration, including (i) the educational and professional development programs that were offered to the members, (ii) the establishment of a new program of trauma therapy being offered to individuals and groups, (iii) the economic ties that were evolving, and (iv) the deepening social and cultural ties between the institution and the organization.

In many ways, it is a test case of how non-state institutions can play remarkably effective roles in helping street gangs transition to a more prosocial identity and series of practices. This special relationship and its evolution were studied through ongoing participant and nonparticipant observations and both formal and informal interviews with members of both the institution and the group, providing one of the three cases demonstrating how gang legalization has worked across state and non-state institutional terrains. (The other cases are (i) the private university FLACSO in Quito, which had developed a close relationship with the group in the early stages; and (ii) the Ministry of the Interior, which maintained a close relationship with the Latin Kings for ten years.) 

In June, our research shifted to the street organization known as the Masters of the Street on the Pacific Coast. Thirty life history interviews were carried out with group members as well as many hours of field observations and interviews with ancillary members of the group. Four areas of the group’s history were explored: (i) an early period of activity during the first decade of the millennium when significant numbers were involved in intergroup violence and spent time incarcerated; (ii) a subsequent period, which coincided with gang legalization, when the group significantly reduced its engagement in violent acts; (iii) the transnational characteristics of the group with a particular emphasis on its ideology and cultural symbolism; and (iv) the significance of members’ migratory experiences as they moved from rural areas to the city and the consequences of those experiences for the group’s deescalation of violence.

This intense research period with the Masters provided important data to show another dimension of the remarkable impact of gang legalization and the sustained fall in homicide rates. 

The latter part of the research year focused on two areas: (i) the escalating prison crisis and the role the street organizations could play in reducing tensions between inmates, and (ii) the national uprising and how this affected the relationship between the street organization and the government.

Unfortunately, due to the deteriorating political conditions, we were unable to explore the prison relationship with the groups, although this remains an important area that we wish to develop in future endeavors.

The second area of study provided an extraordinary example of a government’s radical policy change from social inclusion to repression and exclusion. We gathered data on the various experiences of both the Latin Kings and the Masters as their members took part in the protests and strikes, and then their experiences as the groups were demonized and declared a public enemy to be targeted by security forces. 

In sum, the experience demonstrated the difficulties of doing sustained research during a period of heightened political instability as well as the vulnerability of these groups for government targeting as the political demands of the moment require.

Interestingly, despite a freezing of relationships between the state and these street organizations, the prosocial gains made during the decade of gang legalization are still relevant. To date, we have not seen any of the groups return to a path of violence. It is a remarkable finding given the falling level of government legitimacy in the country and the rejection of so many progressive ideals of the previous decade.