Making Sense of Violence Through Women’s Experiences: Meaning-Making, Gendering and Racialization at Peru’s Urban Margins

Abstract This article examines how cultural frameworks shape interpretations of women’s experiences of violence. Based on 16 months of ethnographic fieldwork in Puerto Nuevo, a Peruvian shantytown, the study explores how residents, communities, and state actors ascribe meaning to violence through shared cultural logics of gendering and racialization. Two interwoven cultural processes emerge: gendering, which reinforces societal norms of masculinity and femininity, and racialization, which constructs racial categories and stereotypes. Participants’ interpretations of violence are deeply rooted in normative conceptions of gender and race, often blaming women for the violence they and their communities endure while framing poor, racialized residents as inherently violent. By analyzing the cultural dimensions of violence through women’s experiences, this study pushes criminological literature beyond individual or group-based (e.g. offenders, victims) analysis to examine the broader social structures shaping societal understandings of violence. Bridging cultural sociology and criminology, the study reveals how gendered and racialized meanings of violence extend beyond specific groups and contexts, reinforcing structural inequalities. Recognizing these processes is crucial for addressing systemic violence and its disproportionate impact on marginalized women.