Joel Herrera

Joel Herrera is a Ph.D. candidate in Sociology at UC Los Angeles. In many developing countries where formal institutions fail to guarantee rule of law, criminal organizations have emerged as intermediaries between citizens and the state. In some cases, these armed non-state actors adopt repressive strategies to govern their territories and local populations. Under what circumstances do local actors mobilize against criminal governance? Can armed collective action mitigate or reduce violence? To answer these questions, his research examines the cycles of violence that gave rise to, and were perpetuated by, the autodefensas of Tierra Caliente, Michoacán.