Policing Democracy : Overcoming Obstacles to Citizen Security in Latin America / / Mark Ungar.

• VerfasserIn: Ungar, Mark,
• Place / Publishing House: Baltimore, Maryland : : Project Muse,, 2018; ©2018
• Year of Publication: 2011; 2018
• Language: English
• Physical Description: 1 online resource (1 PDF (xxiv, 389 pages) :); illustrations, maps

Latin America's crime rates are astonishing by any standard--the region's homicide rate is the world's highest. This crisis continually traps governments between the need for comprehensive reform and the public demand for immediate action, usually meaning iron-fisted police tactics harking back to the repressive pre-1980s dictatorships. In Policing Democracy, Mark Ungar situates Latin America at a crossroads between its longstanding form of reactive policing and a problem-oriented approach based on prevention and citizen participation. Drawing on extensive case studies from Argentina, Bolivia, and Honduras, he reviews the full spectrum of areas needing reform: criminal law, policing, investigation, trial practices, and incarceration. Finally, Policing Democracy probes democratic politics, power relations, and regional disparities of security and reform to establish a framework for understanding the crisis and moving beyond it.

Table of Contents

Realms of change and obstacles to citizen security reform -- Citizen security and democracy -- Honduras -- Bolivia -- Argentina -- Overcoming obstacles to reform.