Police Violence and Uncertainty in Latin America: Linking the Macro- and Micro-Levels of Analysis

• NCJ Number: 148868
• Journal: International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 3 Dated: (1993) Pages: 44-59
• Author(s): L G Gabaldon
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 16 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study of patterns of police violence in Latin America proposes a model to explain such violence by linking the macro- and micro-levels of analysis.

Abstract

Prior research on police violence in Latin America has emphasized the role of the authoritarian state; however, this explanation is problematic because impersonal bureaucratic structures are relatively weak in Latin America and because police violence occurs in a variety of political regimes. In addition, the authoritarian-repressive hypothesis provides no testable link between macro-level conditions and the micro-level situations in which police violence occurs. The proposed model is based on suggested, albeit limited, empirical observations of police work in Latin America and on a different interpretation of the historical development of the Latin American state. Micro- level studies of police work suggest that situational uncertainty is an important factor in police-citizen encounters. Uncertainty occurs when the police cannot easily anticipate the outcome of the encounter. Such uncertainty is fostered in part by cultural and social factors that characterize the development of Latin American police forces. The macro-level highlights the precarious role of the police as a social control agency; the micro-level focuses on the police's inability to obtain civilian acquiescence. Variables related to police uncertainty in a situation are the physical balance of power between police and citizens in a particular encounter, the material resources and training available to the police for problemsolving, and the probability that the police can withdraw from the encounter without abandoning legal imperatives or losing self-esteem. Variables related to the citizen's response to the police are the level of resistance to police intervention and the possibilities of joining with other citizens to oppose police intervention. The model predicts that the fewer the resources available to police and the lower the level of citizen submission to police, the greater the level of situational uncertainty for police and the greater the likelihood of police violence. 1 table, 1 figure, and 53 references