Homicide rate variation in the course of the peace dialogue between the National Government and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, Farc: October 18 2012 through August 28 2016

Abstract

The research objective was to analyze the variation of homicide rates throughout the phase of negotiations developed between the National Government of Colombia and the Farc armed group with relation to articles 103, 104, 104a, 105, 108 and 135 of the Colombian criminal code. A descriptive exploratory study with a mixed history-based approach was envisaged. As a result, a positive relationship was evidenced between homicide and the armed conflict settings as a specific environment, pointing out that every time the confrontation either escalated or slowed down, the punishable act behaved accordingly. In a concomitant manner, a dynamics of de-escalation of the armed conflict was marked by the negotiation, thus sealing the decline of the crime at a national level with a reduction of 8.57 %, when comparing the homicide rate of year 2012 with that of 2015, but not in the regional environment where it increased in the Departments of Atlantico, Cauca, and Quindio, maintaining a sustained upward trend above the annual average homicide rate in Antioquia, Choco, Guaviare, Meta, Nariño, Norte de Santander, Putumayo, Risaralda, and Valle del Cauca, symmetrical to the presence of criminal structures in the Department of Atlantico.