Apathy or Anger? How Crime Experience Affects Individual Vote Intention in Latin America and the Caribbean

• In Event: Violencia, crimen organizado y sus impactos en las democracias latinoamericanas

Abstract

Does the experience of falling victim to crime lead to individual disenchantment from politics or can it even stir political activism? We study how crime victimization affects the intention to vote in presidential elections with survey data from Latin America and the Caribbean. Research on non-electoral political behavior reveals that crime victims become politically more engaged. In contrast, findings from psychological research suggest that victimization increases individual apathy due to loss of self-esteem and social cohesion. Building a cognitive foundation of political activism we propose that it is the level of distress which increases – in the case of non-violent crime experience –, or decreases – in the case of violent crime exposure – the likelihood of voting. The results support the argument. The probability of turnout does, however, not change for victims of violent crime. We offer a mechanism, which explains the non-violent crime induced electoral mobilization by an anti-right-wing-incumbent effect.

Author

• Sarah A Berens, University of Cologne