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The Impact Of Researchers’ Perceptions Of Insecurity And Organized Crime On Fieldwork In Central America And Mexico, Dawid Wladyka, William Yaworsky

Sociology Faculty Publications and Presentations

This article explores field researchers’ perceptions of field site security and causes of fieldwork disruption. We seek to quantify what phenomena are decisive in perceiving a field site insecure and to gauge whether researchers find rural or urban areas to be more secure from organized criminal violence. We also identify the conditions that best predict scholars’ willingness to abandon research in any given region. To do so, we use a regression analysis of the results of a survey administered to anthropologists working in Mexico and Central America. The article reveals that anthropologists view urban areas as being less secure and …