Reflections on Vulnerability, Inequality, and Violence from a Public Health Perspective in the Economic Context of Latin America

Abstract

In the 1980s, socioeconomic transformations broadened the spectrum of poverty to include the middle sectors. To describe the condition of poverty within these groups, CEPAL introduced the concept of vulnerability. In the health field, this term is used to highlight the characteristics that make individuals more susceptible, or inherently predisposed, to being affected by one or more risk factors. Consequently, the causes of violence become risk factors that blame individuals for behaviors that place them in precarious situations. This work aims to critically examine the concepts of vulnerability and inequality, focusing on how violence is exerted on bodies, especially through the growth of criminal activity in Latin America and Mexico. It draws on Juan Pablo Pérez Sáinz's analysis of the unequal distribution of surplus to contextualize violence as a tool of social control, a paradigm of contemporary violence, and an instrument of the criminal economy. The conclusion is that violence transcends the immediate message of the act itself; when homicides are counted, the statistics obscure other forms of violence.