Criminality, Armed Groups, and Reinsertion: Profiles and Motivations

With the purpose of determining the causes by which a person becomes a member of an illegal armed group in Antioquia, existing national and international literature was reviewed. This literature was compared to the quantitative information related to perpetrators and former perpetrators in the country and in the State, and the qualitative information found in interviews made to members of criminal bands and focal groups with experts. An individual can have good reasons to commit crimes based on coercion, individual wishes, selective incentives, social and family environments, damages, lack of social control, and on several personal characteristics or traits which may make of him more prone to commit criminal activities. His continuation in an armed group will depend on the recruitment strategies that can involve incrimination, economic benefits, ideological speech or threats. After a demobilization process, other factors such as personal insecurity, lack of political influence, absence of social prestige, economic insecurity, and other specific failures of the process of reintegration to society may result in the person's new perpetration of criminal activities. In Antioquia, coercion as a recruitment strategy is still a frequently used method; basic motivations in social environments were observed as essential and common for criminal bands and guerrilla groups; individual intention focused on the interest for a military life were more related to guerrilla and avaricious feelings were much more associated to criminal bands; selective incentives after promising a salary were factors related to criminal bands; finally, damages, that are an ideological support of guerrilla groups are also used by criminal bands as a strategy for recruitment and a search for legitimacy within the territories where consolidation is sought.