While research increasingly recognizes the importance of civilian agency and strategies in influencing conflict dynamics and reducing civilian victimization in the context of armed conflict, research has until now not investigated whether civilians also have the capacity to limit organized criminal violence. This study thus aims to answer under which conditions civilians can protect themselves from and influence levels of organized criminal violence and draws on the literatures on civilian self-protection and autonomy strategies in the context of armed conflict, as well as on organized criminal governance and violence. I argue that civilian communities with high levels of social organization will experience lower levels of violence, as they are more likely to mount successful collective strategies that influence costs and benefits for organized crime groups to use violence. Using the method of structured focused comparison, this hypothesis is tested on the Colombian municipalities San Juan de Arama, Vistahermosa and Granada. The results show some support for the theorized relationship. In general, municipalities with higher levels of social organization experienced lower levels of organized criminal violence, but this relationship appears to be moderated by levels of civil war violence. Due to the explorative character of this study, more research is warranted.

Peace communities are an “organized and sustained civilian mobilization in the midst of civil war to declare neutrality and to purposely end or prevent violent conflict in their community” (Kaplan. 2017). Scholars have long believed peace community could scale up from local oriented peace to connect to national peace processes but have overlooked the relationship between peace communities and their government. This study asks Why do governments respect the rules and boundaries of some peace communities and not others? I hypothesize that governments are more likely to respect peace communities with higher levels of cohesion, and more likely to disrespect less cohesive peace communities. I conduct a structured focused comparison study to test three empirical cases from the Philippines, comparing three first generation peace zones. I found some support for my hypothesis and causal mechanism. I then tested another empirical case from Colombia and found additional support for my hypothesis but not for my causal mechanism. Overall, this study presents a new theoretical framework, introduces a new dependent variable for measuring peace communities, and provids insight into the often under-researched first generation Philippine peace zones.