By Bernardo Kliksberg and - -
WASHINGTON, May 1 2003 (IPS)

Latin America is in the grip of a crime epidemic, writes Bernardo Kliksberg, general coordinator of the Inter-American Initiative on Social Capital, Ethics and Development and the author of \’\’Towards an Economy with a Human Face\’\’ . In this article for IPS, the author writes that the most popular approach to the new wave of crime is the \’\’strong hand\’\’ — the strengthening of repressive actions. The risks of this approach are evident. In Latin America, there is an emerging tendency to criminalise poverty, which can open the way to more extreme phenomena, like the extra-judiciary execution groups. In sharp contrast to the \’\’strong hand\’\’ approach is the preventive approach, which holds that youth crime should be recognised as a different phenomenon, the roots and structural causes of which must be understood and confronted in a different way. The author argues that the real solution to youth criminality lies in devoting more resources to job creation, opportunities in sports, culture, or leisure for young people, strengthening family ties, and increasing the levels of education.

Latin America is in the grip if an epidemic of crime. Two out of five Latin American citizens say that they or a relative have been victims of an act of crime during the last year (LatinBarometro 2001). Each year there are 40 homicides per every 100,000 inhabitants, 400 percent more than in the developed countries. During the 1990s, the homicide rate grew by 40 percent. Public and private security budgets have skyrocketed. In 2001, Brazil spent 46 billion dollars on security, 10.3 percent of the country’s GDP –the equivalent of Chile’s GDP– while Colombia and Mexico spent 29.7 and 12.3 percent, respectively.

What is to be done?

The most popular approach to the new wave of crime is the ”strong hand” — the strengthening of repressive actions. This approach consists of increasing the number of security forces, giving greater discretion, a freer hand, to the police, reducing the legal guarantees that ”obstruct” police action, and reducing the age limit for incarcerating youths.

In Latin America, this approach is presented as the only way out the problem and appeals to large segments of the electorate, who, without sufficient information, believe this is a matter solely of police control.

Nonetheless, recent research and statistics on the wave of youth crime raise many questions about the effectiveness of the ”strong hand” approach. Among others, the analysis of Louis Vacquant, a prominent researcher of the College of France and the University of Berkeley and author of ”Prisons of Misery” (Ed. Manantial) argues that the experience of several countries shows there is no correlation between the number of people in prison and the medium and long-term reduction of crime rates.

The ”strong hand” is effective in bringing about massive incarceration, creating what Vacquant calls ”the penitentiary state”, but it does not address the structural causes of the problem. The risks of this approach are evident. In Latin America, there is an emerging tendency of people to criminalise poverty, such that the poor population is increasingly permeated by suspicions of criminality merely because of their appearance as poor. This trend can open the way to more extreme phenomena, like the extra-judiciary execution groups that have sprouted in some Latin American countries and use fascist arguments to justify killing children, teens and youngsters living in the street.

In sharp contrast to the ”strong hand” approach is the preventive approach, which agrees that society must be defended from organised crime such as drug cartels or kidnapping rings but holds that youth crime should be recognised as a different phenomenon, the roots and structural causes of which must be understood and confronted in a different way.

In Latin America, studies point to several such causes: the first is the sharp increase in youth unemployment, now above 20 percent, twice the region’s overall unemployment rate. Another factor is the ongoing trend of family disintegration as a result of economic hardship. The family is the most important institution in crime prevention. It shapes a person’s ethical values and moral behaviour during the first stages of life. If the family structure is damaged, it won ‘t fulfil this important role. Research on Uruguay from the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC), and similar studies on the United States, indicate that two thirds of delinquent youth come from broken homes.

Crime is also related to low levels of education and high rates of dropping out of school. Analysis by the Inter-American Development Bank in Central America, where street gangs have multiplied, indicates that its members generally drop out of school, lack places for leisure, integration, or sports, live in extremely crowded spaces, have been the victims of domestic violence, and were excluded from the formal labour market.

Thus, the real solution to youth criminality lies in devoting more resources to job creation, opportunities in sports, culture, or leisure for young people, strengthening family ties, and increasing the levels of education. This preventive approach has led to several successful experiments, in San Francisco and Boston, and in Finland, which has the smallest number of prisoners and policemen in Europe.

Studies by Nobel economist Joseph Stiglitz have shown that investing in education is less expensive and more effective in reducing crime than investing in security.

Latin America now finds itself at a crossroads with this critical issue. Will it continue down the path of the ”strong hand”, a seeming dead end that leads to the criminalisation of poverty, or will it choose to create opportunities for the integration into society of the large contingent of youths who are currently excluded. It is imperative to transcend the presently anaemic debate on youth crime, distorted by slogans and demagogic promises, and inform the public about the structural causes of the problem. What is at stake is nothing less than the ethical quality of our societies. (END/COPYRIGHT IPS)

Excerpt: