The research was conducted in two phases. In the first, the researchers used PRA methods to seek out the perceptions of poor urban people about the causes and effects of violence in their communities. In the second phase, contact was made with representatives of other organisations active in the community, such as the police, businesses, non-governmental organisations and the Church. The researchers could then compare the views of poor people with these other key organisations. Lack of access to jobs is regarded by poor people as the critical pathway to poverty and violence.
People feel they suffer from living in stigmatised areas.
For instance, employers blame the poor for lacking a proper work ethic then discriminate against them for living in the 'wrong' parts of town. Violence was linked in people's minds with mistrust and fear, and the erosion of social institutions. This research project also raised some searching questions about the participatory research process, relating to ownership and confidentiality. When researchers take findings from communities, and analyse them by creating their own categories to represent them in simplified form to policy makers, ownership and accuracy may be changed or lost. Moreover, when the research topic is highly sensitive or controversial it is hard to publish findings in a way which avoids either disclosing confidential information or taking ownership of information away from the communities that generated and own it.