Why do some individuals join the world of organized crime? An analysis of this phenomenon in Santiago de Cali

Abstract

The general objective is to determine the causes that influence and make some individuals join organized crime in Santiago de Cali. Due to the nature of this problem, a qualitative methodology that has made information gathering easier through the interviewing technique and the crossing of statistic data was used as support material to sustain the analysis. With the help of statistics covering the period between 2008 and 2013, as consolidated by the National Police Center for Criminological Investigations, this phenomenon and the typical features of those cases pertaining to this classification in the city of Cali are described. In order to construct the qualitative outlook, the technical instrument was applied to four individuals having been convicted and incarcerated in the Cali prison. The results obtained show that organized crime is a sector possessing great ability to create violence and insecurity both inside and outside the municipality of Cali; it is composed mostly of youngsters and adults with no profession, job or formal occupation, and their structures affect not only economic property and assets of both public and private nature but also people’s life, integrity and freedom. The accounts of the interviewees reveal that lack or scarcity of economic resources, family dysfunction, the influence of criminals and delinquents, the culture of illegality and organized crime economy have deviated them from healthy life conducts and processes, therefore led them to get involved in socially reprehensible behaviors and acts that happened to be reinforced and strengthened in this illegal environment. It has been concluded that both structural deficiencies and individuals’ projection in the criminal activity explain their involvement in this problem area.