This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bogin, B, Hermanussen, H. and Scheffler, C. (2021). Fear, violence, inequality and stunting in Guatemala. American Journal of Human Biology, 33(S1): e23593, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1002/ajhb.23593. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions