Media, crime, and trust in the police in Latin America
| Author | Scott Liebertz,Jaclyn Bunch |
| DOI | 10.1177/1461355719852645 |
| Published date | 01 June 2019 |
| Date | 01 June 2019 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Article
Media, crime, and trust in the police
in Latin America
Scott Liebertz
University of South Alabama, USA
Jaclyn Bunch
University of South Alabama, USA
Abstract
This article examines the effect crime is having on support for law enforcement in Latin America. Scholars empirically
demonstrate a strong negative effect of crime on support for institutions and satisfaction with democracy. Little empirical
work, however, investigates the effect of the media on attitudes toward criminal justice institutions within the Latin
American context. We test whether variance in crime salience in the media across countries affects support for the police
and the criminal justice system. Analyzing survey data from Latinobarometro and content analysis of newspapers in 14
Latin American countries, we find evidence that increased salience of crime reduces trust in the police across a number of
different measures of media coverage.
Keywords
Crime, media, Latin America, police
Submitted 15 Apr 2019, accepted 23 Apr 2019
The troubling levels of criminal violence in Latin America
and the role of victimization and fear of crime on citizen
support for democracy and its institutions are receiving
increased scholarly attention (Carreras, 2013; Ceobanu
et al., 2011; Cruz, 2015; Fernandez and Kuenzi, 2010;
Visconti, 2019). We investigate the degree to which this
varies over different media landscapes. It has been shown
that the media can exert a strong influence on citizen atti-
tudes, and the extent to which citizens respect the law and
abide by its enforcement institutions is potentially threat-
ened by frequent dissatisfaction with the regime’s effec-
tiveness (Cruz, 2015; Kwak et al., 2012). Public security
is perhaps a state’s most important function. By investigat-
ing the role of the media in citizens’ assessment of crime
and their support for the criminal justice system, we seek to
answer an important question about whether variation in
national context can drive a negative assessment of justice
systems by fearful citizens.
To accomplish this, we engage in careful examination
and coding of thousands of newspaper accounts of crime in
the weeks before an election in 14 Latin American
countries. We then create aggregate indicators to test the
influence of crime portrayal on citizen attitudes toward the
police using representative survey data in each of these
nations conducted by Latinobarometro. We test for the
influence of a number of different types of media message
including the amount and nature of the crimes, the charac-
terization of law enforcement and the priority given by
politicians and pundits. We find evidence that media mes-
saging is an important factor in understanding cross-
national variation in the trust citizens have in the police.
Crime, police reform efforts, and trust in
law enforcement
Perceptions regarding criminal activity and states of inse-
curity are especially important in Latin America. Murder
Corresponding author:
Scott Liebertz, Univer sity of South Alabama, 599 1 USA Drive North,
Room 233, Mobile, AL, 36608, USA.
Email: sliebertz@southalabama.edu
International Journalof
Police Science & Management
2019, Vol. 21(2) 65–80
ªThe Author(s) 2019
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DOI: 10.1177/1461355719852645
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rates collected by the World Health Organization show that
homicide prevalence in Latin America dwarfs that of the
United States. El Salvador and Venezuela are among the
most dangerous nations according to the United Nations
Office on Crime and Drugs, (UNOCD) each with homicide
rates over 50 per 100,000 (Muggah a nd Aguirre-Tobo´n,
2018), with countries like Honduras not far behind. Addi-
tional crimes like kidnapping and assault are also becoming
more common, to the point where many citizens do not feel
they are worth even reporting (Pearson and Magalhaes,
2018). It is clear that these trends do not go unnoticed by
the citizenry—surveys conducted throughout the region
demonstrate that citizens consider crime and insecurity to
be among the worst problems they face (Pew Research
Center, 2014)
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Latin America suffers from
not only high rates of violence, but also low levels of
trust in its police. In 11 of Latin America’s 18 democra-
cies, over 15%of citizens characterized their amount of
trust in the police as “not at all”
1
. People are most critical
in Venezuela (38.4%), the Dominican Republic (32%),
and Mexico (32.0%). In 12 Latin American countries,
more than 10%of citizens indicate that police solicited
them for a bribe in just the last year. This cynicism
towards the justice system persists in spite of several
reform efforts in the area. These range from restructuring
bloated bureaucracy, enhancing local control, providing
more professionalization, soliciting greater global assis-
tance, and improving the fairness and efficiency of crim-
inal processing (Johnson et al., 2012). Development of
community-focused law enforcement has also been com-
mon in the region (Fruhling, 2012).
Attempts to implement these reforms frequently face
significant challenges. For one, there is often substantial
political pressure to implement harsh crime control policies
known as “mano dura”, or “iron fist” in English, even
though many professionals and analysts doubt its effective-
ness (Swanson, 2013). When more progressive policies are
encouraged, police still often fail to cooperate with imple-
mentation (Ungar, 2011). Legal and institutional hurdles
are also numerous, as policies often face resource shortages
and are inconsistent with existing laws and statutes favored
by law enforcement. The police themselves face abysmal
remuneration and weak professional training, which in turn
incentivizes corrupt shortcuts or even criminal cooperation
(Ortega, 2018). Not all attempts at police reforms in Latin
America have been failures, however, and it is worth noting
that in Costa Rica, Chile, Nicara gua, Panama, and Uru-
guay, crime is fairly low and trust in law enforcement is
reasonably high. Even where violent crime rates are high,
some reasons for optimism exist. These include greater use
of surveillance in Colombia, more effective assignment of
law enforcement to the most dangerous neighborhoods
through Barrio Seguro in the Dominican Republic, innova-
tive redistributive projects like Fica Vivo (or “stay alive” in
Portuguese) in Brazil, and cooperative arrangements with
nongovernmental organizations to reduce sexual assault
(particularly against women) in Bolivia (Muggah et al.,
2016). These positive developments, however, often seem
overwhelmed by systematic deficiencies in terms of fund-
ing and professionalization, as well as the continued pres-
ence of widespread corruption (Wazed and Akhtar, 2015).
Trends such as these could be markedly detrimental to
citizen trust and faith in government—as many initiatives
may fail due to insufficient support and resources, or sig-
nificant implementation barrier s, leaving citizens to feel
helpless.
Research on the causes and consequences of trust and
satisfaction in the police and the criminal justice system has
a rich history in the United States and has been increasing
in the comparative context in recent years, particularly as it
relates to Latin America. Important indicators of trust in
Latin America and other contexts are victimization, percep-
tion of insecurity, and police corruption. Recent crime vic-
tims indicate less trust in law enforcement and other
government actors (Ahmad et al., 2 011; Carreras, 2013;
Romero et al., 2016), and there are similar findings for
those who fear crime in their neighborhood (Ahmad
et al., 2011; Boateng, 2016; Carreras, 2013). Solicitation
for a bribe by the police can also undermine trust in both
law enforcement (Ivkovic, 2008) and the political system in
general (Cruz, 2015). Unfortunately, these types of solici-
tations are a relatively frequent occurrence in Latin Amer-
ica (Cruz, 2015; Sabet, 2012). Corruption seems to have a
substantial effect on declining trust in the police not only in
Latin America, but also in other regions of the world
(Chang and Chu, 2006; Kaariainen, 2007). Demographic
characteristics can also affect trust in law enforcement.
Sabet (2012) focuses on satisfaction with the Mexican
police, finding that older citizens are more trusting,
whereas income and education surprisingly have null
effects. Kwak et al. (2012), by contrast, find that age and
education are negatively correlated with confidence in law
enforcement. In an analysis restricted to Central America,
Malone (2010) observes that the effects of age, gender,
education, or income on trust in the justice system vary
across the different countries. In studies looking at the
entire region, Cao and Zhao (2005) indicate that age is
unrelated to trust in the justice system in Latin America,
whereas income, social and economic indicators, and years
of schooling all reduce trust in the police. Ahmad et al.
(2011) find that trust increases with age, decreases wi th
high school and college-level education, and has no corre-
lation with gender. Structural variables like democratic
stability and institutional strength are als o important for
66 International Journal of Police Science & Management 21(2)
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