TITLE:
Contagion or Socioeconomic Disparity? Crime as a Reflection of Inequality between Urban and Rural Areas in Guanajuato
AUTHORS:
Jesica Vega Zayas, José Luis Coronado Ramirez, Juan Antonio Rodríguez González
KEYWORDS:
Inequality, Crime, Bajío, Urban, Rural
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.13 No.4,
April
30,
2025
ABSTRACT: Regional development has diverse socioeconomic outcomes, formed by economic, social, and environmental factors. In developing areas, social organization strives for harmony and coexistence for the community, but barriers may be in the way. Such is the case of crime in recent decades in Guanajuato. Understanding obstacles and their impact is crucial. This project identifies statistical associations between geographic continuity, socioeconomic dynamics, and criminal acts in municipalities of Guanajuato and those bordering them, seeking causality. More deaths from homicide occurred in 2020 in Guanajuato state than in all neighboring states totaled, an alarming rise which sparked our research. However, the Guanajuato government explains away this violence with claims of “contagion” from contact with a more violent neighboring state. We focused on crime at the municipal level in Mexico’s Bajío region to identify connections to socio economic issues, considering both the perspectives and limitations of each philosophical, social, or legal theoretical tool employed. The findings indicate that municipalities with higher urbanization rates and greater economic activity experienced higher rates and intensity of crime. Our hypothesis, that the most important associations between municipalities bordering Guanajuato state are of lesser intensity than the association of those which share borders with municipalities of higher economic activity, was not discarded.