Crime and Punishment

Continuing with the trend started in the previous two units, this unit deals with another important issue that affects the performance and quality of democracy. Crime, the social conditions that underlie it and the responses of the state to this problem will be the main focus of our analysis. In most Latin American countries the immediate response to crime was to lengthen sentences, lower the age at which minors can be tried as adults, and criminalize more behavior. We will see how this approach engendered poor prison conditions and overcrowding. Finally, we will discuss other possible solutions and their comparative advantages and disadvantages.

The text by Stanley will show the spin on crime that both media and some sectors of the political sphere have imposed. Ungar's text on prison conditions will show how problematic this issue is, and how it has not been fully addressed in the past. Our task will be to imagine a more effective response to the very real problem of crime and insecurity, and one that does not threaten to undermine democracy itself.

• Reading 1: Millet & Stiles - "Peace without Security: Central America in the 21st Century" (.pdf)
• Reading 2: Stanley - "Law and Order Talk" (on the political construction of crime in Buenos Aires) (.pdf)
  • Study Questions
  • GRAPH: External Cause of Death in the Americas
  • Data on Crime Rates (external link)
  • TABLE: Comparison of Homicide Rates
  • GRAPH: Comparative Homicide Rates by Region, 1970 - 1994
  • GRAPH: Victimization/Ordinary Property Crime Rates
  • Financial Times article on the continued rise of crime and graft in Brazil
  • For some good movies on Crime in Latin America click here
• Reading 3: Ungar - "Prisons and Politics in Contemporary Latin America" (.pdf)
  • Study Questions
  • Movie clips showing the state of Latin American prisons from the inside:
    • Carandiru: Who governs the prisons?
    • Carandiru: Prison conditions, Brazil 1928
    • Bus 174: A look at the inside
    • City of God: The view from the inside
  • PowerPoint Presentation with an overview of Prison Populations and Legal Standards (.ppt)
  • TABLE: Prison Populations in Latin America
  • Prison Conditions report (.doc)
  • International and national legal standards for prison conditions
  • For one view of how the police and the courts fight crime in Argentina, click here (.ppt)
  • Here are a series of recent articles relating to prison conditions in Latin America:
  • BBC report on the "medieval" conditions of Brazilian prisons
  • 103 die in Honduras prison blaze
  • Prison riots in Central America
  • Venezuela: chronicle of a massacre foretold
  • Prison riots in Ecuador
  • Prison riots in Brazil
  • Prison conditions in Brazil by Francesco Neves
  • How prison conditions affect human right record in Brazil
• VIDEO: Click here for a discussion of the "impunity index" and its implications in Mexico by Dr. Alejandro Gertz Manero (.mov)
• NPR produced a series on the effect of the drug traffic on Central America, and a story on the Mara Salvatrucha, a violent gang that grew up in Los Angeles and moved to Central America when its members were deported. Follow the links to the stories, to understand why it might be more difficult than you think to deal with the problem of crime and drug trafficking:
  • Drug Trafficking:
    • Cocaine Republics Report 1 (.aiff)
    • Cocaine Republics Report 2 (.aiff)
    • Cocaine Republics Report 3 (.aiff)
  • Mara Salvatrucha:
    • PBS News Hour Video
    • NPR Audio (.wma)
  • Movie clips showing the effects/realities of the drug trade:
    • City of God: How the drug business is organized in Rio
    • City of God: An alternative economy
    • City of God: The police and the drug lords
• Country Profile: Argentina
• Country Profile: Brazil