Political Determinant of Violence in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires

• In Event: The Politics of Urban Exclusion and Subnational Social Policy in Latin America: New Research Agendas

Abstract

The informal regulation exercised by the police and political actors over crime broke 20 years ago. Since then, Argentina experienced two significant and parallel phenomena: the fragmentation of its political parties and the surge of patterns of drug related organized crime activity which produced increasing levels of crime and violence. These general trends do not however explain significant variability in crime rates among municipalities of the metropolitan area of Buenos Aires. This paper tests whether specific patterns of intra-party fragmentation are associated with higher levels of violence. It employs a mixed methods approach testing quantitatively the influence of intra party fragmentation on the level of violence at the municipal level using data between 1995 and 2008. The study of paradigmatic cases of organized crime members´ convictions provides specific evidence about the new mechanisms that link politics, the police, and criminal actors.

Author

• Alberto F Föhrig, Universidad de San Andrés