even the fear of violence had the capacity to “paralyze development at the grassroots. If development is the process of building societies that work,” they concluded, then “crime acts as a kind of ‘anti-development,’ destroying the trust relations on which society is based.”33 There is evidence that people living in fear of violence unproductively divert resources to security measures, and the payment of bribes and protection money; are risk-averse, less entrepreneurial, and prone to short-term economic decision-making; and are discouraged from accumulating assets or opening a business.
