Peace Without Justice, Obstacles to Building the Rule of Law in El Salvador. MARGARET POPKIN: University Park, PA: Pennsylvania State University Press, 2000.

Abstract

El Salvador has been among the most violent places on earth over the last 30 years. A decade-long civil war took the lives of some 90,000 Salvadorans, including the country's Catholic Archbishop and dozens of foreign nationals. Yet, in a period in which peace agreements have forged a considerable measure of political peace, civil violence in the form of criminal behavior has surged to unprecedented levels. Murder rates in El Salvador are among the highest in the world, at times exceeding levels encountered in the darkest days of the civil war and military repression. As during the war, the costs of violence continue to weigh most heavily on the poor and marginalized sectors of society. In a book that traces the thread of impunity that motivated and persists after this civil war, Margaret Popkin attributes the astonishing legacy of Salvadoran violence to the acute failure in building the rule of law as a central pillar of a democratic peace.