This study analyzes the intersection of gender-based violence, organized crime, and urban security policies in Ecuador through a critical feminist and intersectional lens. A qualitative methodology was employed, combining documentary review, statistical sources, and geospatial analysis. Data included homicide and femicide records, gender violence reports, socio-economic indicators, and measures of state presence, standardized into rates per 100,000 inhabitants and mapped using GIS techniques. The findings reveal concentrated territorial clusters of women’s violent deaths between 2020 and 2023, strongly correlated with socio-economic deprivation, weak institutional coverage, and structural gender inequalities. These patterns confirm that violence against women in contexts of organized crime is not collateral but a deliberate strategy embedded in necropolitical logics and the pedagogy of cruelty, reinforcing the feminization of insecurity and deepening territorial exclusion. To address these dynamics, the study recommends integrating geospatial indicators and standardized measures such as the UNDP Gender Inequality Index (GII) into security strategies. Localized “Safe Cities” evaluations and multidimensional vulnerability indices are proposed to inform evidence-based, inclusive, and gender-responsive urban security policies.
Roxana Arroyo Vargas (Sun,) studied this question.