NCJ Number
211641
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 33 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2005 Pages: 403-412
Date Published
September 2005
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study examined the positive effects of happiness, political conservatism, and trust in a political system on confidence in the Latin American police.
Abstract
Due to the history of Latin America, long years of independence followed by periods of military/dictatorship rule, a citizen could not rely on the police or courts to protect them, making it reasonable to assume that the public did not have much confidence in the police. This study attempts to fill a void in the literature on the police role in democratization and confidence in the police in Latin America. The study investigated the determinants of confidence in the police with comparable quantitative data from 10 nations. The results indicate that the public in the United States enjoys the highest confidence in the police among all nations under study which included Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Mexico, Peru, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Despite its recent transition to democracy in various degrees, the inertia of past lost legitimacy has clearly continued to haunt the publics in these societies in Latin America. It will take many years of significant effort for both governments and police to repair its damaged justice system and restore legitimacy. The findings seem to indicate that the promise of liberalization in Latin America had not been met where it mattered most, the relationship between the police and the public. References