“You don’t want to be the first to be killed.” Security as a Focal Concern in the Prosecution of Organized Crime in Peru

• In Event: Prosecution in the Making II: Prosecutors on their Job: Investigation and Decision Making

Abstract

Focal concerns theory is widely used in criminology to explain prosecutorial decision-making. However, most research applying this framework focuses on the United States, where prosecutors do not investigate crimes, but police do. This paper innovates by expanding focal concerns theory to examine the challenges prosecutors face when investigating criminal organizations in Peru, a mixed-adversarial system where, unlike in the U.S., prosecutors are appointed officials who conduct criminal investigations. Drawing from 20 in-depth interviews with Peruvian prosecutors specializing in organized crime investigations, I introduce “security” as a previously unexamined focal concern shaping case selection. My findings reveal two dimensions of security: external threats of physical harm from organized criminal groups and threats of unlawful interference (e.g., information leaks, infiltration, and sabotage) that compromise investigations. This study makes three key contributions to criminology. First, it extends the applicability of a well-established criminological theory beyond U.S. jurisdictions and their conventional focus on judicial disparities. Second, it provides a framework for future cross-national comparisons of prosecutorial discretion in mixed adversarial systems affected by rising organized crime. Thirdly, it enriches our understanding of prosecutorial discretion–particularly its relationship to human agency– by incorporating insights from court-community research and pragmatic sociology.

Author

• Diego Tuesta, University of Toronto