Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Cultural Tactics Of Salvadoran Gangs Offer Chance For Us To Weaken Ms-13, Hannah Penner

Undergraduate Honors Capstone Projects

This paper uses the Cultural Topography framework employed by the intelligence community to assess cultural factors of the MS-13 (Mara Salvatrucha) gang organization that have policy relevance to US national security. MS-13, though originally founded in the 1980s in a small sector of LA, has evolved into an international gang with a reputation of ultraviolence with a recent increase in gang activity. By striving to explore components of MS-13's identity, values, norms of behavior, and perceptions, this research can be used to create a more timely and effective strategy in combatting the present MS-13 threat within the United States. After …