Essay on local violence

As in the case of other place-specific social phenomena, violence makes no exceptions when it comes to the investigation of common patterns, including both its origins and outcomes. One immediate consequence of this fundamental premise is that finding unanimous consensus within the academic literature can be a challenging task, with only a few exceptions when it comes to overarching theoretical frameworks. This thesis represents a dedicated effort to enhance our understanding of violence through the adoption of a localized and specific perspective. From a geographical standpoint, this thesis delves into the intricacies of violence and recognizes that the causes, manifestations, and consequences of violence are often deeply rooted in the unique historical, cultural, and social contexts of a given region. By zooming in on these local nuances, we can gain a richer and more comprehensive understanding of the complex tapestry of violence. Moreover, the thesis acknowledges the inherent diversity within violence itself. It is not a monolithic phenomenon but rather a multifaceted one, encompassing various forms such as interpersonal violence, structural violence, political violence, and more. Each of these forms carries distinct characteristics, motives, and implications. They affect individuals differently, depending on their socioeconomic status, gender, ethnicity, and other factors. Moreover, these forms of violence can have varying impacts on different communities and societies, perpetuating cycles of inequality and conflict in unique ways. This effort is built upon two key theoretical pillars. The first pillar posits that different stimuli produce different outcomes, influenced by personal and environmental characteristics, necessitating the discrimination of various stimuli. The second pillar highlights the significance of understanding violence as a place-based and place-specific phenomenon. From this perspective, while connected to larger processes of material transformation and power relations, urges the need to interpret violence and its spatiality as a site-specific phenomenon rooted in local histories and societies. The thesis consists of a collection of three papers. In the first one, I explore the causal link between police-perpetrated homicides and migration during the Venezuelan crisis (2017-2018), revealing heterogeneous effects across age, gender, and education levels of migrants. The second paper delves into the relationship between terrorism and electoral participation, dissecting the Anni di Piombo era in Italy by analyzing provincial-level exposure to terrorism and its influence on voting behavior at national elections spanning from 1972 to 1992. We weigh the mediated effects of terrorist violence, considering casualties and physical damage, by applying the Causal Mediation Analysis framework. Lastly, leveraging exclusive data on intimate partner femicides in Italian metropolitan areas from 2012 to 2020 geo-located at a street-level granularity, in the third paper I map their distribution, highlighting ecological factors correlated with an increased probability of observing femicides. Together with a theoretical introduction aimed at disentangling the multifaceted nature of violence, these papers provide comprehensive insights into migration dynamics, political violence, and gender-based violence, contributing valuable knowledge to the understanding of these nuanced social issues.