CERAC - Research

research on the colombian conflict

This work pinpoints the impact of diverse forms and agents of violence on human welfare. A primary focus of this work is a soon-to-be-completed book on the human impact of small arms in Colombia. This cooperative project between CERAC and the Small Arms Survey in Geneva will cover both conflict and criminal violence.

This page presents our analysis of the Colombian Civil Conflict. This is a collaborative effort of researchers at Royal Holloway-University of London, Universidad Javeriana and CERAC, based on the databases maintained at CERAC.

power law in conflicts

This page will present our research on Power Laws in Armed Conflicts.

In our first work we analyze the pattern of casualties in the Iraq conflict and the seemingly unrelated conflict in Colombia. Surprisingly we find that they have remarkably similar structures which also greatly resemble that of the war on global terrorism. This work has been written up in Nature, the Economist and the The Guardian

This work is being conducted in a collaborative effort by researchers at Royal Holloway, University of Oxford, Universidad Javeriana, Universidad de los Andes and CERAC.

At the core of CERAC’s work is a methodology for the measurement of conflict actions and their human impact. We developed this system over the past three years while constructing the CERAC Colombia Conflict Database. We are currently extending this approach to Iraq and Peru and will soon begin Afghanistan work as well. Nepal and Northern Ireland are on the horizon.

The CERAC conflict measurement system is based on software called “SARAC”, which we keep under constant development. Strengths of SARAC include strong georeferencing capabilities plus detailed victimization modules covering both victim characteristics and types of victimization.

firearms violence research

CERAC has been doing research on firearms violence in Colombia: its impact on people, the importance and effectiveness of the firearms control policies and the evolution of laws on firearms, among others. In the website that can be consulted here, we present the production on the subject.

CERAC has done substantial analysis of the Colombian conflict. Another line has been work on the size distribution of violent events in Colombia and Iraq in which we have found surprising regularities in the form of “power laws”. We have further work underway on the role of illegal right-wing paramilitary groups in conflicts in Colombia and elsewhere, economic development and conflict, peace actions and conflict, crime and conflict, small arms and conflict and regional conflict studies for Colombia.

With support from UN-Habitat, CERAC is studying the dynamics of urban violence in Bogotá, focusing on its human impact and policies of redress, including gun control. This work also strongly exploits our expertise in spatial analysis.

Planned projects in this area include conflict and suicide, conflict and gender, conflict and forced displacement and the demographic impact of conflict and criminal violence.