Anti-social capital in former members of non-state armed groups: A case study of Colombia

Studies in Conflict and Terrorism

Volumn 37, Issue 12, 2014, Pages 999-1023

  Nussio, Enzo ^a,b   Oppenheim, Ben ^c,d  

^a STOCKHOLM UNIVERSITY   (Sweden)

^b UNIVERSIDAD DE LOS ANDES   (Colombia)

^c NEW YORK UNIVERSITY   (United States)

^d STANFORD UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 84909981407     PISSN: 1057610X     EISSN: 15210731     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/1057610X.2014.962438     Document Type: Article

References (120)

1. All interview quotes translated from Spanish by authors.
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11. Elinor Ostrom, “Social Capital: A Fad or a Fundamental Concept?,” in Ismail Serageldin and Partha Dasgupta, eds., Social Capital: A Multifaceted Perspective (Washington, DC: World Bank Publications, 2000), pp. 172–214
12. Jan W. van Deth and Sonja Zmerli, “Introduction: Civicness, Equality, and Democracy—A ‘Dark Side’ of Social Capital?,” American Behavioral Scientist 53(5) (2010), pp. 631–639.
13. Louis Corsino, “They Can’t Shoot Everyone. Italians, Social Capital, and Organized Crime in the Chicago Outfit,” Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 29(2) (2013), pp. 256–275
14. C. Ronald Huff, Gangs in America, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks: SAGE Publications, 2002)
15. Gareth A. Jones and Dennis Rodgers, Youth Violence in Latin America: Gangs and Juvenile Justice in Perspective (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009)
16. Patricia C. Márquez, The Street Is My Home: Youth and Violence in Caracas (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2002)
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19. In the sense that those outside the organization are excluded from its benefits, but for group members, the benefits are non-rivalrous and can be enjoyed by all.
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21. Eduardo Pizarro Leongómez, Las Farc (1949–2011): De guerrilla campesina a máquina de guerra (Bogotá: Grupo Editorial Norma, 2011).
22. One notable exception can be seen in the paramilitary leader alias McGuiver, described in James Robinson, “Colombia: Another 100 Years of Solitude?,” Current History 112(751) (2013), pp. 43–48.
23. CNMH, ¡Basta Ya! Colombia: Memoria de Guerra Y Dignidad (Bogotá: Centro Nacional de Memoria Histórica, 2013).
24. Gustavo Duncan, Los Señores de La Guerra: De Paramilitares, Mafiosos Y Autodefensas En Colombia (Bogotá: Planeta, 2006)
25. Pierre Bourdieu, “Le Capital Social,” Actes de La Recherche En Sciences Sociales 31(1980) (1980), pp. 2–314.
26. Gabriel Abraham Almond and Sidney Verba, The Civic Culture: Political Attitudes and Democracy in Five Nations (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1963)
27. Ronald Inglehart, Modernization and Postmodernization: Cultural, Economic, and Political Change in 43 Societies (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1997)
28. Robert W. Jackman and Ross A. Miller, “A Renaissance of Political Culture?,” American Journal of Political Science 40(3) (1996), pp. 632–659.
29. Francis Fukuyama, Trust: The Social Virtues and the Creation of Prosperity (NewYork: Free Press, 1996)
30. Michael Woolcock, “Social Capital and Economic Development: Toward a Theoretical Synthesis and Policy Framework,” Theory and Society 27(2) (1998), pp. 151–208
31. Bruce P. Kennedy et al., “Social Capital, Income Inequality, and Firearm Violent Crime,” Social Science & Medicine 47(1) (1998), pp. 7–17.
32. Levi, “Social and Unsocial Capital”; for an overview.
33. Deth and Zmerli, “Introduction.”
34. Ostrom, “Social Capital.”
35. Mauricio Rubio, “Perverse Social Capital: Some Evidence from Colombia,” Journal of Economic Issues 31(3) (1997), pp. 805–816.
36. William A. Callahan, “Social Capital and Corruption: Vote Buying and the Politics of Reform in Thailand,” Perspectives on Politics 3(3) (2005), pp. 495–508
37. Víctor Pérez-Díaz, From “civil War” to “civil Society,” ASP Research Paper 36(b) (Madrid: Complutense University, 2000).
38. Alejandro Portes and Patricia Landolt, “The Downside of Social Capital,” The American Prospect 26(94) (1996), 18–21.
39. Paul Collier, “Social Capital and Poverty: A Microeconomic Perspective,” in Christiaan Grootaert and Thierry van Bastelaer, eds., The Role of Social Capital in Development: An Empirical Assessment (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002), pp. 19–41.
40. B. Mccarthy and J. Hagan, “Getting into Street Crime: The Structure and Process ofCriminal Embeddedness,” Social Science Research 24(1) (1995), pp. 63–95.
41. Putnam, Democracies in Flux, pp. 10–11.
42. Diego Gambetta, “Can We Trust Trust?,” in Diego Gambetta, ed., Trust: Making and Breaking Cooperative Relations (New York: Basil Blackwell, 1988)
43. Kenneth Newton, “Social and Political Trust,” in Russell J. Dalton and Hans-Dieter Klingemann, eds., Oxford Handbook of Political Behavior (New York: Oxford Handbooks, 2007), pp. 342–361.
44. Marilynn B. Brewer, “The Psychology of Prejudice: Ingroup Love and Outgroup Hate?,” Journal of Social Issues 55(3) (1999), pp. 429–444.
45. The concept of anti-social capital has been used before, but rather as a catch phrase than as a clearly defined concept, see Omar Shahabudin McDoom, “Antisocial Capital. A Profile of Rwandan Genocide Perpetrators’ Social Networks,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 58(5) (2014), 865–893.
46. Collier, “Social Capital and Poverty
47. Ostrom, “Social Capital”; Alejandro Portes, “The Two Meanings of Social Capital,” Sociological Forum 15(1) (2000), pp. 1–12.
48. Often, criminal organizations are rather networks than hierarchically integrated groups. Criminological research on this topic is somewhat divided, see Lampe, “Human Capital and Social Capital in Criminal Networks.” The same problem also applies to other illegal organizations like terrorist groups;
49. Arie Perliger and Ami Pedahzur, “Social Network Analysis in the Study of Terrorism and Political Violence,” PS: Political Science & Politics 44(1) (2011), pp. 45–50. Also, recent literature has pointed to internal fragmentations among non-state armed groups, as opposed to the traditional view of unitary actors
50. Kristin M. Bakke, Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, and Lee J. M. Seymour, “A Plague of Initials: Fragmentation, Cohesion, and Infighting in Civil Wars,” Perspectives on Politics 10(2) (2012), pp. 265–283
51. Kathleen Gallagher Cunningham, Kristin M. Bakke, and Lee J. M. Seymour, “Shirts Today, Skins Tomorrow. Dual Contests and the Effects of Fragmentation in Self-Determination Disputes,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 56(1) (2012), pp. 67–93
52. Theodore McLauchlin and Wendy Pearlman, “Out-Group Conflict, In-Group Unity? Exploring the Effect of Repression on Intramovement Cooperation,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 56(1) (2012), pp. 41–66. We will not engage in these debates about networks and fragmented organizations, but we must limit the scope conditions of our theory to cohesive illegal organizations with a clear in versus out division (at organization or subunit level).
53. Blake Ashforth and Fred Mael, “Social Identity Theory and the Organization,” Academy of Management Review 14(1) (1989), pp. 20–39.
54. Dora L. Costa and Matthew E. Kahn, “Cowards and Heroes: Group Loyalty in the American Civil War,” The Quarterly Journal of Economics 118(2) (2003), pp. 519–548
55. Ben Oppenheim, Juan F. Vargas, and Michael Weintraub, Learning How Not to Fire a Gun: The Impact of Combatant Training on Civilian Killings, HiCN Working Paper 110 (Households in Conflict Network, 2013).
56. Guy L. Siebold, “The Essence of Military Group Cohesion,” Armed Forces & Society 33(2) (2007), pp. 286–295
57. David H. Petraeus, James F. Amos, and John A. Nagl, The U.S. Army/Marine Corps Counterinsurgency Field Manual (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007).
58. Don Pinnock, Gangs, Rituals & Rites of Passage (Cape Town: African Sun Press, 1997).
59. Dara Kay Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War: Cross-National Evidence (1980–2009),” American Political Science Review 107(3) (2013), pp. 461–477.
60. Rodgers, “Joining the Gang and Becoming a Broder.”
61. Joshua Barenbaum, Vladislav Ruchkin, and Mary Schwab Stone, “The Psychosocial Aspects of Children Exposed to War: Practice and Policy Initiatives,” Journal of Child Psychology and Psychiatry 45(1) (2004), pp. 41–62
62. Alpaslan Özerdem and Sukanya Podder, Child Soldiers: From Recruitment to Reintegration (London: Palgrave Macmillan, 2011).
63. William Mishler and Richard Rose, “What Are the Origins of Political Trust?,” Comparative Political Studies 34(1) (2001), pp. 30–62.
64. Rubio, “Perverse Social Capital.”
65. World Bank Conflict Prevention and Reconstruction Unit, Child Soldiers: Prevention, Demobilization and Reintegration, Social Development Dissemination Note No. 3 (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2002), p. 3.
66. Christopher Blattman and Jeannie Annan, “The Consequences of Child Soldiering,” The Review of Economics and Statistics 92(4) (2010), pp. 882–898.
67. Christophe Pierre Bayer, Fionna Klasen, and Hubertus Adam, “Association of Trauma and PTSD Symptoms With Openness to Reconciliation and Feelings of Revenge Among Former Ugandan and Congolese Child Soldiers,” JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association 298(5) (2007), pp. 555–559.
68. Brian K. Barber, Adolescents and War: How Youth Deal with Political Violence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008).
69. Frank Bovenkerk, “On Leaving Criminal Organizations,” Crime, Law and Social Change 55(4) (2011), pp. 261–276.
70. John Braithwaite, Crime, Shame and Reintegration (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1989). The effect of shaming is likely to be highly conditional; in Braithwaite’s model, it depends on whether shame is restorative or stigmatizing, and on cultural context. Stigmatizing the person rather than shaming the act—in essence, cutting off potential for the offender to admit of transgression and seek forgiveness—can produce more social distance. Restorative justice—shaming the act, but allowing for forgiveness—can produce the opposite effect. Absent opportunities for restorative justice in Colombia, we suspect that shaming may have corrosive effects.
71. Klaus von Lampe and Per Ole Johansen, “Organized Crime and Trust: On the Conceptualization and Empirical Relevance of Trust in the Context of Criminal Networks,” Global Crime 6(2) (2004), pp. 159–184.
72. Numbers in this section provided by the ACR and the National Police.
73. Duncan, Los Senores de La Guerra
74. Alejandro Reyes, Guerreros Y Campesinos: El Despojo de La Tierra En Colombia (Bogotá: Norma, 2009)
75. Romero, Paramilitares Y Autodefensas, 1982–2003.
76. Mauricio Romero and León Valencia, Parapolítica (Bogotá: Intermedio Editores, 2007).
77. CNMH, ¡Basta Ya!.
78. Acuerdo de Santa Fe de Ralito, “Acuerdo de Santa Fe de Ralito Para Contribuir a La Paz de Colombia” (Alto Comisionado para la Paz, 15 July 2003).
79. Enzo Nussio, “Learning from Shortcomings: The Demobilisation of Paramilitaries in Colombia,” Journal of Peacebuilding and Development 6(2) (2011), pp. 88–92.
80. Pizarro Leongómez, Las Farc (1949–2011)
81. Carlos Medina, ELN: Una Historia Contada a Dos Veces (Bogotá: Rodrigo Quito Editores, 1996).
82. Ana Arjona, “One National War, Multiple Local Orders: An Inquiry into the Unit of Analysis of War and Post-War Interventions,” in Morten Bergsmo and Pablo Kalmanowitz, eds., Law in Peace Negotiations (Oslo: Torkel Opsahl Academic Publisher, 2009).
83. Juan E. Ugarriza and Matthew J. Craig, “The Relevance of Ideology to Contemporary Armed Conflicts: A Quantitative Analysis of Former Combatants in Colombia,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 57(3) (2013), pp. 445–477.
84. Soledad Granada, Jorge Restrepo, and Andrés R. Vargas, “El Agotamiento de La Política de Seguridad: Evolución Y Transformaciones Recientes En El Conflicto Armado Colombiano,” in Jorge Restrepo andDavid Aponte, eds., Guerra Y Violencias EnColombia. Herramientas E Interpretaciones (Bogotá: Pontificia Universidad Javeriana, 2009), pp. 27–124.
85. El País, “Santos Asegura Que El Número de Integrantes de Las Farc Es de 7800,” 12March 2013.
86. Álvaro Villarraga, “Experiencias Histo´ricas Recientes de Reintegracio´n de Excombatientes En Colombia,” Colombia Internacional 77 (2013), pp. 107–140.
87. FARC: 13.691, ELN: 2889, AUC: 3682, other armed groups: 486.
88. Formerly Alta Consejería para la Reintegración and now Agencia Colombiana para la Reintegración.
89. ACR, Balance 2009. El Año de La Consolidación de La Política de Reintegración En Colombia (Bogotá: Alta Consejería para la Reintegración, 2010).
90. Ostrom, “Social Capital,” p. 180.
91. Paul Dekker, “Social Capital of Individuals: Relational Asset or Personal Quality?,” in Sanjeev Prakash and Per Selle, eds., Investigating Social Capital: Comparative Perspectives on Civil Society, Participation and Governance (Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, 2004), pp. 88–112.
92. Fundación Ideas para la Paz; “Encuesta a desmovilizados” (Bogotá: June 2008).
93. Enzo Nussio, La Vida Después de La Desmovilización. Percepciones, Emociones Y Estrategias de Exparamilitares En Colombia (Bogotá: Universidad de los Andes, 2012).
94. Robert H. Jackson and Carl G. Rosberg, “Why Africa’s Weak States Persist: The Empirical and the Juridical in Statehood,” World Politics 35(1) (1982), pp. 1–24.
95. As Calvert notes, “the state is the community organized for political purposes; The government is the individual or team of individuals that takes decisions which affect the lives of their fellow citizens. Governments succeed one another; the state endures.” Peter Calvert, The Process of Political Succession (New York: Macmillan, 1987), p. 248.
96. The original Spanish-language question was “¿Hasta qué punto tiene confianza en el Estado?”
97. Alpaslan Özerdem, “A Re-Conceptualisation of Ex-Combatant Reintegration: ‘Social Reintegration’ Approach,” Conflict, Security & Development 12(1) (2012), pp. 51–73.
98. United Nations, Integrated Disarmament, Demobilisation and Reintegration Standards (New York: UNDDR, 2006).
99. Enzo Nussio, “How Ex-Combatants Talk about Personal Security. Narratives of Former Paramilitaries in Colombia,” Conflict, Security & Development 11(5) (2011), pp. 579–606
100. Anders Themnér, Violence in Post-Conflict Societies: Remarginalization, Remobilizers and Relationships (London: Routledge, 2011).
101. Oppenheim, Vargas, and Weintraub, Learning How Not to Fire a Gun.
102. Observatorio de DDR, Desvinculación Y Desmovilización En Colombia Y Nariño (Bogotá: ODDR, 2011).
103. Child Soldiers Global Report 2008. Available at http://www.child-soldiers.org/useruploads/pdf/colombia7494957.pdf (accessed 7 October 2014).
104. The results are robust to alternate cutoff points, and are available from the authors upon request.
105. Interview with ex-paramilitary in Medellín no. 1, February 2009.
106. Interview with ex-paramilitary in Medellín no. 3, February 2009.
107. Interview with ex-paramilitary in Tierralta, April 2009.
108. Interview with ex-paramilitary in Medellín no. 4, February 2009.
109. This finding points in a different direction than recent research by Annan and Blattman, who find that former child soldiers who were forcibly abducted into the Lords’ Resistance Army in Uganda exhibit higher levels of political engagement, including higher propensity to vote and to take on community leadership roles. Blattman and Annan, “The Consequences of Child Soldiering”; Christopher Blattman, “From Violence to Voting: War and Political Participation in Uganda,” American Political Science Review 103(2) (2009), pp. 231–247.
110. William Rosenau et al., “Why They Join,Why They Fight, and Why They Leave: Learning From Colombia’s Database of Demobilized Militants,” Terrorism and Political Violence 26(2) (2014), pp. 277–285.
111. Interview with ex-paramilitary in Barrancabermeja no. 2, March 2009.
112. Interview with ex-paramilitary in Barrancabermeja no. 3, March 2009.
113. Macartan Humphreys and Jeremy M. Weinstein, “Demobilization and Reintegration,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 51(4) (2007), pp. 531–567
114. Michael J. Gilligan, Eric N. Mvukiyehe, and Cyrus Samii, “Reintegrating Rebels into Civilian Life: Quasi-Experimental Evidence from Burundi,” Journal of Conflict Resolution 57(4) (2013), pp. 598–626
115. Robert Muggah, ed., Security and Post- Conflict Reconstruction. Dealing with Fighters in the Aftermath of War (Abingdon and New York: Routledge, 2009).
116. Enzo Nussio, “Emotional Legacies of War among Former Colombian Paramilitaries,” Peace and Conflict: Journal of Peace Psychology 18(4) (2012), pp. 369–383.
117. Scott H. Decker and Janet L. Lauritsen, “Leaving the Gang,” in C. Ronald Huff, ed., Gangs in America, 3rd ed. (Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publications, 2002)
118. Diego Gambetta, The Sicilian Mafia: The Business of Private Protection (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1996)
119. James Diego Vigil, Barrio Gangs: Street Life and Identity in Southern California (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1994).
120. Cohen, “Explaining Rape during Civil War.”