Gangs are widely considered major contributors to the high levels of violence afflicting Latin America, including in particular Central America. At the same time, however, the vast majority of individuals who join a gang will also leave it and, it is assumed, become less violent. Having said this, the mechanisms underlying this ‘desistance’ process are not well understood, and nor are the determinants of individuals’ post-gang trajectories, partly because gang desistance tends to be seen as an event rather than a process. Drawing on long-term ethnographic research carried out in barrio Luis Fanor Hernández, a poor neighbourhood in Nicaragua's capital city Managua, and more specifically a set of ‘archetypal’ gang member life histories that illustrate the occupational options open to former gang members, this article offers a longitudinal perspective on desistance and its consequences, with specific reference to the determinants of individuals’ continued engagement with violence (or not).

人们普遍认为，拉丁美洲（尤其是中美洲）暴力活动频繁，帮派是造成这种情况的主要原因。然而，与此同时，绝大多数加入帮派的人也会离开该帮派，并且据推测会变得不那么暴力。话虽如此，这种“停止”过程背后的机制以及个人后帮派轨迹的决定因素尚不清楚，部分原因是帮派停止往往被视为一个事件而不是一个过程。本文借鉴了在尼加拉瓜首都马那瓜的一个贫困社区 Luis Fanor Hernández 区进行的长期人种学研究，更具体地说，是一组“原型”帮派成员的生活史，说明了前帮派成员可以选择的职业选择。提供了关于停止及其后果的纵向视角，特别提到个人继续（或不）参与暴力的决定因素。