This book asks why crime and violence persist in Latin America at extreme levels and why the states have not been able to more effectively solve this problem that dominates the lives of many millions of Latin Americans.
Informed by diverse disciplinary backgrounds, the book brings together a team of regional experts to discuss research-based explanations on some of Latin America’s most pressing criminal and violent issues distressing the rule of law. First, it examines old and new forms of observing crime upon perpetrators and victimized communities. Second, it explores the geographies of urban and rural violence and the entangled politics following organized criminality. Third, it questions how the transfer of policy knowledge and expertise reshapes local security governance, and, more importantly, critically examines the problems in implementing foreign models and paradigms in the Latin American context. Finally, it exposes the everchanging scenario of policy-making and prosecuting crime and homicide.
Crime, Violence, and Justice in Latin America provides new themes and novel trends on what crime and violence mean in the eyes of observers, perpetrators, policymakers, governmental officials, and victims. It is an important acquisition for policy makers and academics alike.
Author(s): Carlos Solar, Carlos A. Pérez Ricart
Series: Routledge Studies in Latin American Politics, 12
Publisher: Routledge
Year: 2022
Language: English
Pages: 282
City: New York
Cover
Half Title
Series
Title
Copyright
Contents
List of Figures
List of Tables
List of Contributors
1 Introduction: Crime, Violence, and Justice in Latin America
Part 1 Logics of Crime
2 Reflections on Youth, Norms, and Violence in Colombia’s Criminal Underworld
3 Gangs and Criminal Governance in El Salvador
Part 2 Geographies of Violence: Urban and Rural Scenarios
4 The War on Criminality in Rio de Janeiro: Pacifying Unruly Territories?
5 Micro-dynamics and Political Economy of the Criminal War in Tierra Caliente, Mexico
6 Organized Crime and Political Mobilization Along Honduras’ Drug Routes
Part 3 Circulation of Policy Knowledge
7 Experts, Elites, and the Making of Safe Cities in Guatemala
8 Why Does Colombia Export Security Expertise? Security Cooperation Between Status and Bureaucracy
9 Sí Ex-Militares, No Ex-Policías: Military Fetishism in Mexico’s Private Security Industry
Part 4 Criminal Justice and Homicide Investigation
10 Between Delegation and Strategic Defection: Police, the Judiciary, and the Politics of Criminal Investigation in Argentina
11 On Homicide Rates: Sketching an Analytical Framework From the Brazilian Case
12 CSI in the Tropics: Evaluating Team Coordination for Homicide Investigation in Bogotá, Colombia
13 Final Remarks: Security in Latin America Post-COVID-19
Index
