María Paz Trebilcock y Alejandra Luneke en libro “City & Security: Communities and citizens’ rights inthe co-production of security”

Re-thinking violence and the city

From risk to urban resilience: An alternative path for democratic security

The risk factors prevention paradigm (RFPP) is at a crossroads. Both its theoretical foundations and implications for security policies have been, and continued to be, questioned.

There are a number of critics who, from a scientific perspective, have rejected this approach due to the low impact of its prevention strategies. However, the most important weakness of the RFPP relates to the citizenship and democracy deficits it has created. In fact, the objectivist approach that has characterized the implementation of the paradigm has standardized definitions of risk factors has provided non-spatial and non-historical assessments, it has overestimated individual variables and it has promoted labeling of groups and communities considered “at risk.”

We argue that there is a path to successfully overcome the shortcomings of the current paradigm of crime prevention: approaching security from an “urban resilience” perspective. This approach would allow making progress towards a way of thinking and doing security that is truly democratic.