Complicit States

Complicit States examines how state-driven forces contribute to the persistence of violence in the lives of women in Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and El Salvador. Cecilia Menjívar and Pamela Neumann's analysis moves beyond a focus on individual behaviors and weak law implementation to reveal how the region’s remilitarization, authoritarian practices, infiltration of conservative religious ideologies, and media manipulation and disinformation campaigns work together to undermine women’s rights and safety. These contemporary forces amplify long-standing and historically constituted social and economic disadvantages that women face over their lifetimes. Crucially, the book also examines how women’s organizations confront these conditions as they pursue gender justice and a life free from violence. While focused on Central America, this work remains broadly relevant to similar processes unfolding elsewhere in the world today—including in wealthy democracies.

Cecilia Menjívar is Distinguished Professor of Sociology, Dorothy L. Meier Social Equities Chair, and Director of the Center for the Study of International Migration at the University of California, Los Angeles. She is author of Fragmented Ties: Salvadoran Immigrant Networks in America and Enduring Violence: Ladina Women’s Lives in Guatemala.

Pamela Neumann is Associate Professor of Sociology at Texas A&M International University. She has written extensively on gender-based violence, law, and human rights in Central America.