Forced displacement in and from cities due to organized crime violence has beset many Latin America countries for at least the last decade, if not decades. Latin American gangs provoke displacement from Monterrey in northeastern Mexico to San Salvador in Central America to Rio de Janeiro in the southeast of Brazil. And individuals have been fleeing from one neighborhood of Medellín, Colombia, to another since the 1980s, if not earlier.

With more than half of the world living in urban centers and crime and violence having followed suit, the magnitude of forced displacement in and from cities should come as a surprise to few. Yet such flight has caught many off guard. Academics, among them. Key questions that remain underexplored in this area are: Who are the urban displaced? What triggers such displacement? And what are the after-effects on the people who flee in and from cities?  

Jerome Marston will present his research, which has been funded by a Fulbright-Hays Doctoral Dissertation Research Abroad Award.