Abstract

MADERA, Sheilla Rodríguez  and  NEGRON, Salvador Santiago. La seguridad ciudadana: Del modelo reactivo al enfoque preventivo. Rev. Puertorriq. Psicol. [online]. 2010, vol.21, pp. 62-84. ISSN 1946-2026.

A critical analysis of the “law and order” model (LOM) that is practiced in the Puerto Rican society is conducted in order to assess its impact on citizens. The LOM is compared with the Public Health Model (PHM) in terms of their potential to prevent violence in Puerto Rico. Both models are perceived as unique paradigms that emanate from different assumptions in order to approach violence in its different modalities. The main objective of this article is to the present implications of the adoption of the PHM to prevent violence. The PHM is described as oriented to the activities of long term strategic planning and primary prevention. On the other hand, the LOM is described a short term in terms of its strategic planning and vision. The ecological approach implicated in the PHM is described and recommendations issued by the United Nations (UN) are presented and discussed with particular emphasis for their adoption in Puerto Rico. These recommendations have been ignored by local authorities as they insist on the use of LOM in a dogmatic fashion. The ecological approach of the UN is presented as the first step in tackling the challenges that violence represents for society. The authors present the adoption of the PHM as an invitation for the creation of social capital in order to approach the goals of optimizing security for all the citizens and improving their quality of life taking into consideration the process of inclusion, solidarity and the promotion of a culture of peace.

Keywords : violence; prevention; public health; security.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )