Daniel Fredes García, a Ph.D. candidate, received third place in the ASC Gene Carte Student Paper Award for his paper, Cascades of State Violence in Chile (1973–2020).

The paper,  Cascades of State Violence in Chile (1973–2020), examines how historical state violence has lasting consequences for contemporary violence. The research explores how violence can persist over time and influence both state actions and broader patterns of violence in society.

Drawing on Braithwaite’s cascades of violence framework, Fredes García distinguishes between persistence, whereby state violence recurs across time, and legacies, whereby state violence extends into subsequent forms of non-state violence

Using county-level data from Chile and an instrumental variable approach, Fredes García finds evidence consistent with both processes. Historical state violence during the Pinochet dictatorship (1973–1990) predicts higher levels of contemporary state violence in 2019–2020, as well as higher levels of political and interpersonal violence between 2009 and 2018.

The findings highlight the importance of understanding violence as a historically embedded process and incorporating historical state violence into macro-level criminological explanations of violence.

For Fredes García, receiving the award was both an honor and an encouragement to continue developing his research interests.

“It is a great honor to receive this award, and it encourages me to continue exploring Global South contexts and perspectives that can contribute meaningfully to ongoing conversations in our field,” Fredes García said.

The recognition carries particular significance because the research draws on Chile’s history of state violence and its impact on those who experienced it.

"I am especially grateful to have this work recognized because it draws from my country’s tragic history of state violence, and I see research as a way of honoring the experiences of those impacted by state violence,” he said.

“This paper developed from my master’s thesis, for which I was fortunate to have the support of my thesis committee,” Fredes García said.