Organized crime and violence against women: Official discourse and citizens’ perception

Abstract

The construction of a discourse by state power, which has misinformed or provided biased information on the drug trafficking problem to turn it into a security issue that calls for a “crusade against crime” has made violence against women invisible. To make it visible, this article uses a narrative approach to analyze experts’ perceptions of the issue and high impact crime rates from 2007 to 2012 in Mexico City, State of Mexico, Hidalgo and Morelos. Criminal violence has exacerbated old forms of violence against women and created others.