Vulnerability related to insecurity. The challenges of intervention from social work perspective

Abstract

The high crime rate in Mexico has transformed public and private interactions, the economy, the governmental administration, the regional mobility and land occupancy, and these new conditions have led to the emergence of new needs in the country. Thus, the objective of this communication paper is to identify the problems associated with the lack of public safety in Victoria City, Tamaulipas, and to configure the main elements of the need for social work intervention. This applied research study is guided by a qualitative design, uses hermeneutics to identify the discourse categories that are crucial to examine this issue based on the opinions and stories of the community, which are obtained by means of in-depth interviews and focus groups configured in the cultural context of the region. Theresults indicate that risk is a constant in the city, but that the list of risks faced by its community, which usually included environmental, economic, political and health risks, now also includes risks that violate people’s rights to safe life, physical integrity, private property, free mobility and accurate and complete information. The results also point out that the emergence of these new risks demand the design of public policies and strategies for local development and community social cohesion by professional social workers. The framework that demands professional intervention is a city in which securities arediluted in uncertainty, fear and rumours, a State that has failed to protect its citizens from violence, acommunity that is afraid of talking about what is happening, and a professional career that has not been able to reinvent itself to respond in an innovative, effective and opportune way to the unique situations posed by the public insecurity affecting the Mexican cities.