Measuring social vulnerability: Proposal of an index for the study of vulnerable neighborhoods to violence in Latin America

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to propose the construction of a social vulnerability index of households and neighborhoods in the presence of urban violence. The index, called SOVI, was built from a conceptual and methodological reflection of factors that could potentially shape it. Events and situations related to socioeconomic deficiencies and the absence of resources to overcome the risks of violence were analyzed based on secondary data from the study «Violence in three cities» applied in the Latin American cities of Bogotá, Lima and Santiago. The database consisted of 2,640 households, from 81 lower-middle and lower-class neighborhoods in these cities. A factorial analysis was used to determine the battery of indicators constituting the SOVI. Finally, with the SOVI constructed, a brief analysis of the vulnerability of households in the neighborhoods studied was carried out and its relationship to violence was determined by means of an Anova. It was found that the SOVI explains the vulnerability of the studied neighborhoods from social disadvantages and deficiencies and that there is a significant relationship between the degree of vulnerability of the households and the violence experienced and felt by the inhabitants. The results and analysis presented here can be replicated in other contexts in Latin America.