Addressing Crime Prevention through Social Policy in Mexico City

Cities in both the global north and the global south have experimented with municipal policies that creatively combine social service provision with urban re-design policies in an effort to address some of the root causes of poverty, violence and insecurity. We trace how international ideas about neighbourhood improvement have been adapted in Mexico City under recent left-wing Partido Revolucionario Democrática (PRD) administrations. This presentation explores the intersection between municipal social policies and new forms of crime prevention in Mexico City (including Tepito, Copilco el Bajo and various neighbourhoods in Iztapalapa). We draw on interviews with government bureaucrats and grassroots community actors conducted during the summers of 2016 and 2017. The interviews reveal how communities in high-risk neighbourhoods are creatively adapting municipal policies to target both poverty and insecurity. We focus on the effects of these initiatives on poverty reduction, urban safety, urban gentrification and the implications for gender, youth and seniors. We also examine the political implications of the emergence of a new left-wing party, Morena, with strong links to urban popular movements.