The thesis explores the understudied subject of provincial variations in outcomes after
Security Sector Reform, by examining how security forces’ behavior affect organized
violence provincially. By contributing to research on organized violence and peacebuilding
focusing on SSR with a regional focus, the thesis seeks an answer to why there is organized
violence in some provincial areas but not others, after the initiation of a SSR program? Based
on theories of state repression, it is hypothesized that security forces’ abusive behavior leads
to higher levels of organized violence. Further, based in counterinsurgency literature, I
theoretically develop that security forces’ participation in post-conflict reconstruction
decreases levels of organized violence. The study tests these hypotheses by employing
structured focus comparisons and process tracing of four provinces in Burundi during 2004-
2014. The study finds partial support for both hypotheses. In some cases abusive behavior
have escalated organized violence, and in some cases reconciling behavior decrease organized
violence. The causal path suggests, beyond the level of trust and distrusts in society and
towards security forces, other factors to correlate and perhaps condition the relationships.