Violence witnessing, perpetrating and victimization in medellin, Colombia: a random population survey

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The burden of injury from violence and the costs attributable to violence are extremely high in Colombia. Despite a dramatic decline in homicides over the last ten years, homicide rate in Medellin, Colombia second largest city continues to rank among the highest of cities in Latin America. This study aims to estimate the prevalence and distribution of witnesses, victims and perpetrators of different forms of interpersonal violence in a representative sample of the general population in Medellin in 2007.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A face-to-face survey was carried out on a random selected, non-institutionalized population aged 12 to 60 years, with a response rate of 91% yielding 2,095 interview responses.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We present the rates of prevalence for having been a witness, victim, or perpetrator for different forms of violence standardized using the WHO truncated population pyramid to allow for cross-national comparison. We also present data on verbal aggression, fraud and deception, yelling and heavy pranks, unarmed aggression during last year, and armed threat, other severe threats, robbery, armed physical aggression, and sexual aggression during the lifetime, by age, sex, marital and socioeconomic status, and education. Men reported the highest prevalence of being victims, perpetrators and witnesses in all forms of violence, except for robbery and sexual violence. The number of victims per perpetrator was positively correlated with the severity of the type of violence. The highest victimization proportions over the previous twelve months occurred among minors. Perpetrators are typically young unmarried males from lower socio-economic strata.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Due to very low proportion of victimization report to authorities, periodic surveys should be included in systems for epidemiological monitoring of violence, not only of victimization but also for perpetrators. Victimization information allows quantifying the magnitude of different forms of violence, while data on factors associated with aggression and perpetrators are necessary to estimate risk and protective factors that are essential to sound policies for violence prevention formulation.</p

IATSS Research

AbstractIn this paper we analyze the emergency medical service (EMS) devoted to attend the victims of traffic accidents in Medellín (Colombia). This work was motivated by the steep increase in injuries derived from these events over the last years. This project has been developed in a partnership with the local authorities of Medellín. In our analysis we used several facility location models to evaluate different courses of improvement. The impact of the proposed measures (a larger fleet of ambulances and different alternatives for their location) is evaluated in terms of the reduction in the number of uncovered districts, the decrease in the busyness of the system, and the resulting improvement in the quality of service. The results of the analysis suggest that to improve the service of the EMS, it is more important to increase the size of the fleet of ambulances than to change their locations at the fire stations

The spatial heterogeneity of factors of feminicide: The case of Antioquia-Colombia

In Latin America, homicide is a leading cause of death among women. The aim of this paper is to examine the spatial heterogeneity of factors influencing feminicide in Antioquia, Colombia. This article adds the impact of drug trafficking location on feminicide to the existing research. Classic models assume that the parameters of these factors are spatially distributed in a constant manner. However, this assumption has been frequently challenged due to the systematic differences of feminicide occurring within different geographical units, giving rise to the presence of spatial heterogeneity. In this article, geographically weighted Poisson regression (GWPR) is used to explore the spatial heterogeneity in these data relationships. Feminicide in the Department of Antioquia, Colombia, is studied using a range of classic explanatory factors. The results show that, in addition to the classic factors, coca-producing areas in Antioquia are directly related to number of feminicides. The findings also show that relationships in feminicide data are better presented by GWPR than by the classic model. © 2018 Elsevier Lt