Contributions of complexity for the understanding of the dynamics of the violence in the cities. Case study: the cities of Bello and Palmira, Colombia (years 2010-2016)

Abstract

There are varied studies that attempt to explain the violence in Latin American cities, most approached from a single disciplinary field such as sociology and criminology. This article tries, from the perspective of the complexity, to provide tools that allow us to understand the dynamics of the violence in the urban contexts. The nature of the study is quantitative; this is a case study that compares the homicides of two intermediate Colombian cities. For this, the database that compiles the National Police of Colombia through its statistical system was processed, the data of the 2010-2016 time window was spatialized, hotspots maps, where we could evidence the distribution of homicides in certain sectors of the cities studied were created and, finally, topological metrics that allowed us to visualize patterns of these violent events were performed. Among the important findings that were obtained through this methodology are (1) that the distribution and diffusion patterns are very different in space and time because the topological evolution of the subgraphs that compose the complex networks of the systems studied follows different behaviors despite having a series of similar social, economic and environmental variables; (2) that homicides tend to concentrate and coincide with the centralities of the cities studied ; and (3) that the tools of complexity, as well as interdisciplinary studies , are innovative and useful for understanding the dynamics of the urban violence.