The legacy of military dictatorship: Explaining violent crime in democracies

Published date01 June 2019
AuthorErica Frantz
DOI10.1177/0192512118769079
Date01 June 2019
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0192512118769079
International Political Science Review
2019, Vol. 40(3) 404 –418
© The Author(s) 2018
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DOI: 10.1177/0192512118769079
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The legacy of military
dictatorship: Explaining
violent crime in democracies
Erica Frantz
Michigan State University, USA
Abstract
Violent crime rates have increased dramatically in many parts of the world in recent decades, with homicides
now outpacing deaths due to interstate or civil wars. Considerable variations exist across democracies
in their violent crime rates, however: different autocratic experiences help explain why this is the case.
Democracies emerging from military rule have higher homicide rates because they typically inherit militarized
police forces. This creates a dilemma after democratization: allowing the military to remain in the police
leads to law enforcement personnel trained in defense rather than policing, but extricating it marginalizes
individuals trained in the use of violence. The results of cross-national statistical tests are shown to be
consistent with this argument.
Keywords
Authoritarian legacies, crime, military dictatorship, new democracies, social violence
Introduction
The transition from dictatorship to democracy is a challenging moment for all polities. Amid the
turbulence, new governments face an urgent and pressing need to create order. The police – the
critical state organization tasked with combatting crime – are at the core of such societal changes
(Marenin, 1996). They must adjust to changing times and work to restore order, while continuing
to fight crime. This results in many observers citing spikes in violent crime following democratiza-
tion (Moran, 2011).1 Notable examples include post-Apartheid South Africa and much of Eastern
and Central Europe following the collapse of communism.
Cases of high and seemingly ever-escalating rates of violent crime after democratization make
news headlines. Indeed, homicides – that is, lethal acts of interpersonal violence2 – are now so
numerous that the number of people around the globe who die due to violence remains unchanged,
Corresponding author:
Erica Frantz, Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, 303 South Kedzie Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824,
USA.
Email: ericaemilyfrantz@yahoo.com
769079IPS0010.1177/0192512118769079International Political Science ReviewFrantz
research-article2018
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