Padding the Iron Fist? Ethnographic Approaches to Ongoing Criminal Justice and Citizen Security Reforms in Latin America

Session Submission Type: Panel

Abstract

How do state and civil society actors draw upon inconsistently and partially implemented citizen security plans in negotiating insecurity? This panel brings together ethnographic research from Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Colombia, and Venezuela, not to ask whether or how security strategies and reforms failed or succeeded, but to analyze how their implementation simultaneously facilitated and constrained actors’ abilities to reduce crime and strengthen the criminal justice system. The expansion of hi-tech surveillance, community policing, and citizen participation will be discussed, alongside other developments, as participants evaluate the new challenges and opportunities created by these strategies.

Sub Track

• Violence and (In)security

Session Organizer

• Rebecca A Hanson, University of Georgia/Athens

Chair

• Jorge C Derpic, University of Texas at Austin

Individual Presentations

• The Rise of the Drone. The introduction of hi-tech, crime surveillance and prevention equipment, in 21st Century Bolivia - Jorge C Derpic, University of Texas at Austin

• Reform as a Safety Valve: The Rise of Community Participation in Policing in Latin America - Yanilda M Gonzalez, Harvard University

• Padding the Iron Fist: How Community Policing Legitimizes Mano Dura Logic - Rebecca A Hanson, University of Georgia/Athens

• Between Mistrust and Solidarity: An Ethnography of Insecurity in Urban Venezuela - Matt Wilde, London School of Economics and Political Science

Discussant

• Veronica Zubillaga, Universidad Simón Bolívar