Wim Savenije is researcher at the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences (FLACSO) in El Salvador and the coordinator of research and exchange of ICCO’s Youth and Security Programme in Central America. His areas of interest are violent youth groups, social exclusion and marginalization of urban areas, and the effects community - police relations on (in)security and violence in Central America. He has extensive field experience in the various countries of the region. The topics of his PhD are the dynamics of social and auto exclusion fomented by the Mara Salvatrucha and the Eighteen Street Gang, and student gangs in Central America. His current research focuses on community policing in urban neighbourhoods in Nicaragua, Honduras and El Salvador and the potential of alleviating the problems of insecurity and violence.