Violence Control at the Municipal Level

This document is one of a series of technical notes that describe the nature and magnitude of violence in the region, its causes and effects, and how it can be prevented and controlled. The notes provide useful information on designing programs and policies to prevent and deal with violence. This note focuses on violence control at a sub-national level. In many countries of the region, a widespread trend towards decentralization of government administration has led to the delegation of government functions and the allocation of resources to local government. This trend has also given rise to greater pressure on mayors and others municipal authorities to address crime prevention, public safety, and violence control issues on the local level. This note presents violence prevention programs from a local perspective and provides some examples of actions that have been taken by municipal authorities in different parts of the Americas.