Understanding support for Mano Dura strategies: Lessons from Brazil and Colombia

Carceral citizenship in Latin America and the Caribbean: Exclusion and belonging in the new mass carceral zone

“…Contrary to the rehabilitative ideals of the resocialization and welfarist policy frameworks that manifested in many countries in the early twentieth century, including, for example, in Puerto Rico during the post-war period (Ortiz Díaz, 2023) and in Nicaragua under the revolutionary paradigm of the 1980's (Weegels, 2018a), the current punitive policy framework that predominates across most of the region today is one that prioritizes punishment over rehabilitation. Promoting tough-on-crime policies and highly sensationalized 'lock up and leave them to rot' discourses, this framework is embraced by political leaders across the political spectrum (Macaulay, 2019;Rosen & Cutrona, 2023;Sozzo, 2018). The political gains of what has been termed punitive or penal populism are heavily entangled with the media's hyperbolic presentation of crime and crime-fighting, fostering a public consensus around hard-line approaches to crime and punishment, even as such policies have proven not to actually solve the problem of crime (Bonner, 2019;Rosen & Cutrona, 2023;Samet, 2019).…”

“…Promoting tough-on-crime policies and highly sensationalized 'lock up and leave them to rot' discourses, this framework is embraced by political leaders across the political spectrum (Macaulay, 2019;Rosen & Cutrona, 2023;Sozzo, 2018). The political gains of what has been termed punitive or penal populism are heavily entangled with the media's hyperbolic presentation of crime and crime-fighting, fostering a public consensus around hard-line approaches to crime and punishment, even as such policies have proven not to actually solve the problem of crime (Bonner, 2019;Rosen & Cutrona, 2023;Samet, 2019). Instead of addressing the root causes of crime, which are seated in persistent socio-economic inequalities across the region (continuing to be the most unequal in the world), these punitive populist policies target particular groups of marginalized young men, scapegoating them to be the cause of all social ills (Alves, 2018;Bergman, 2018;Weegels, 2018b).…”

Cuando el castigo no es piadoso: el miedo al delito y la demanda de penas severas. Evidencia del caso mexicano

“…Finalmente, incluimos variables de control demográficas tales como la edad, el género, el medio social de residencia (urbano o rural), la auto percepción del ingreso económico y el número de años de estudio. Por ejemplo, diversos estudios han encontrado que características demográficas tales como el género (Gilchrist et al, 1998;Jackson 2009;Kelley et al, 1990;Medina, 2003), el ingreso (Kelley et al, 1990;Medina, 2003;Pantazis, 2000), la edad (EFUS, 1995;Gilchrist et al, 1998;Kelley et al, 1990;Rosen & Cutrona, 2021), o la residencia en contextos urbanos (Rosen & Cutrona, 2021) podrían afectar la intensidad del miedo al delito. Controlamos entonces por los potenciales efectos que estas relaciones puedan producir sobre la demanda por aumentos en los castigos a los delincuentes.…”

“…Los resultados soportan una vez más la validez de la Hipótesis 2. También confirmamos que los resultados de este análisis de robustez apoyan los hallazgos previamente reportados porRosen & Cutrona (2021) sobre el papel de la confianza en los militares. También encontramos que mayor confianza en la policía tiende a disminuir el apoyo a la adopción de más castigos, aunque este resultado no llega a ser estadísticamente significativo.…”