Police, Politics and the Immigration-Crime Nexus (Table of contents/Tabla de contenidos) (original) (raw)
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International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2023
In December 2015, the political coalition Cambiemos won the national elections in Argentina, taking the candidate Mauricio Macri to the presidency for a period of four years. One of the recurring topics within public opinion during that time was the explicit and public reference to an alleged link between immigration and crime by administration officials of various kinds. Against this background, I propose to specifically address the ways in which the links between immigration and crime were defined in the political discourses implemented during the Cambiemos administration. The article presents different core categories, reconstructed through discourse analysis: (1) ‘we need to know who is who’; (2) distinction in the types of immigration that arrive in Argentina; (3) tighter controls on the conditions of entry into the country; and (4) crime and migration. In broader terms, and as the argumentative plotline, each of these core categories relates to the Cambiemos initiatives to manage ethnic and cultural diversity: identify, select, control and criminalise.
After referring to the novel and evolving field of 'public security policy' in Latin America and the meaning of 'citizen security', where community plays a relevant role, the article considers 'police reform', as an alternative approach to leave behind the legacy of militarism and authoritarian policing practices, as a path to police democratisation. The importance of 'police culture' is highlighted, as well as the field interactions between police and society. This article exposes the experience of the police reform process of the Buenos Aires province, Argentina, in fact, its two stages, describing in particular the approach, methodology, and results of the program of police cultural change implemented during 2006 and 2007 under civilian supervision. It is recognised a lack of political commitment to sustain long-term reforms. Police reform has not been an imperative but a reactive policy response under crisis. Obstacles encountered and cultural change challenges are further discussed. This article suggests that police reform and police studies in Latin America need to be in close partnership; the practical cooperation between scholars and decision-makers/practitioners involved in the logic of police reform appears as a sound approach.
This thesis aims to contribute to CUITent discussions on citizenship and transnationalism by analyzing the circumstances of Paraguayan, Bolivian and Peruvian immigrants in Argentina. More precisely, 1 examine the impact that statepromoted criminalizing discourses had on the lives of these immigrants in La Plata city in the late 1990s. On the one hand, their access to public services and resources was importantly constrained, submerging many into increasingly pauperized conditions. On the other hand, new distinctions were created within these nationally defined groups as a result of discursive and residential strategies deployed by many of these immigrants. Ce mémoire vise à contribuer aux discussions actuelles portant sur la citoyenneté et le transnationalisme, en analysant la situation d'immigrants paraguayens, boliviens et péruviens en Argentine. J'examine plus précisément l'impact de discours criminalisant promus par l'État sur la vie de ces immigrants dans la ville de La Plata à la fin des années 1990. D'un côté, leur accès aux services et ressources publics fut grandement réduit, plaçant bon nombre d'entre eux dans des conditions de pauvreté. D'un autre côté, de nouvelles distinctions furent créées à l'intérieur de ces groupes résultant de stratégies discursives et résidentielles utilisées par plusieurs de ces immigrants.
This study analyzes the problem of police violence in Brazil and Argentina, observing how it affects the relationship between poor communities and the state. The conclusions are based on field research in two shantytowns: Villa 31 de Retiro in Buenos Aires and Heliópolis in São Paulo, comparing their experiences with police violence and political participation. The study describes how political organizations, neighborhood associations, and civil groups responded to the continuities of repressive policing strategies in poor areas of both cities. It analyzes the participatory channels opened in São Paulo and Buenos Aires and the advances and setbacks in protecting vulnerable communities from violence. The main argument in this thesis is that the measures taken by governments to increase participation in São Paulo and Buenos Aires failed to protect citizens in the poor neighborhoods analyzed, as states established contradicting relationships with these communities, at times through repression and violence, and at times through clientelism and particularism. The thesis concludes that in order to successfully promote citizen security and reduce state violence in poor neighborhoods, more effective channels of community participation need to be established, leveraging local demands within the decision-making process in public security.
State Discourses, Police Violence and Democratisation in Argentina
Bulletin of Latin American Research, 2009
Police violence is a persistent problem throughout Latin America despite the return of electoral democracy; it is pervasive and includes torture, murder and disappearances. Certainly institutional reforms aimed at changing police practice are important. However, it is equally important that state actors maintain a clear and relatively consistent discourse in favour of democratic policing. This article argues that, in the case of Argentina, state actors do not maintain a consistent position in favour of democratic policing and instead oscillate between denying the occurrence of police violence, justifying such police action and absolving themselves of responsibility.
Conflicting visibilities: Police and politics among border migrants in Chile
Security Dialogue, 2020
The inhabitants of the squatted settlements in the border city of Arica, mostly indigenous migrants from the Peruvian–Bolivian highlands, feel the effects of the racialized geography of northern Chile through social discrimination, economic exploitation and deprivation of political rights. In these settlements, their migrant residents make palpable the pervasive tension between a mode of visibility that I analyse in terms of a ‘politics of presence’ and another kind of visibility that is created by the state’s ‘legibility’ techniques. Three aspects come together in this process of conflicting visibilities: (1) the reciprocal influence between a borderland and its police order; (2) the relationship between biopower and the (in)visibility dynamic of migrant lives; and (3) the generative relationship between a redefinition of security and altered citizen practices. Through an analysis of these sets of relationships, the article provides a richer understanding of how, in the struggle be...
Latin American Research Review, 2008
This ørticle focuses ott three central impediments to políce reform ín Ar,eenlina, each o{ which has Reneraled an imporlanf, ye! díslincl, paradox Firsl'al-'lhough adaocaíes of fedcraiísn ûrgue tha! it føcilitates innouûtion, in praclice po-Iire ieþrm efþrts át'one leuel of {o'sernment' ín Argentina haae been sabotaged by o¡¡ciáls at áíher teuels of goaíriment Second,.allhough elcctoral prcssures høae iished police reform onto"the policy agenda, lhcse same pressurcs hnae also obitiucteá ,eprm'eflor!s because' poliíiciãns depenrl on íllicit.party-police networks for camnaiçn frnincinp. Third,'drspile copious euidence of políce inaolaemenl in 'criminìl a"¿si Argenlina's crímc ittazn has cnetgized conseruatiae cíuil socícly groups whose deriøru| for ø heazty-hande,rl responie to crime has derailed the most þromisíng attempts to restruct te the police force Thc days of coup-rnaking by tlìc military are over in this country The police, on the other hand, will pose quite a few problems.
"Paradoxes of Police Reform: Federalism, Parties, and Argentina's Public Security Crisis"
This ørticle focuses ott three central impediments to políce reform ín Ar,eenlina, each o{ which has Reneraled an imporlanf, ye! díslincl, paradox Firsl'al-'lhough adaocaíes of fedcraiísn ûrgue tha! it føcilitates innouûtion, in praclice po-Iire ieþrm efþrts át'one leuel of {o'sernment' ín Argentina haae been sabotaged by o¡¡ciáls at áíher teuels of goaíriment Second,.allhough elcctoral prcssures høae iished police reform onto"the policy agenda, lhcse same pressurcs hnae also obitiucteá ,eprm'eflor!s because' poliíiciãns depenrl on íllicit.party-police networks for camnaiçn frnincinp. Third,'drspile copious euidence of políce inaolaemenl in 'criminìl a"¿si Argenlina's crímc ittazn has cnetgized conseruatiae cíuil socícly groups whose deriøru| for ø heazty-hande,rl responie to crime has derailed the most þromisíng attempts to restruct te the police force Thc days of coup-rnaking by tlìc military are over in this country The police, on the other hand, will pose quite a few problems.
A Critical Approach to Police Science: New Perspectives in Post-Transitional Policing Studies, 2020
The social, economic and technological developments of the late modern society have radically changed policing approaches both at national and supranational levels. With the anti-terrorism discourse and the global crises of mobilities, the security needs of citizens is now at the pinnacle of government priorities. At the same time, traditional law enforcement faces an epistemological crisis through the digitalisation and privatization of security. Governments, and especially the police, are expected to either prevent or respond to security threats, and if necessary, to ensure order through rigorous measures. The traditional means of policing, however, is met with increasing difficulties to sustain their legitimacy on all fronts. Regarding the current subject of public security, several challenges can be identified. The shifting relationship between organizational and management rules between the state and other governing bodies, the use of new technologies, and the fusion of different security units, such as intelligence services, the military, and the police, all contribute to new tensions in policing practices. These changes urge the need of a reflective policing science and the adaptation of existing theoretical approaches. Although several conceptual differentiations are made between policing practices, hardly any theoretical studies discuss the implication of current contextual differences between traditional welfare states and post-transitional societies. This book provides a critical interdisciplinary approach through contextualized thematic analyses of policing practices after the digital turn. All topics are discussed from different conceptual perspectives, and will assess how digitalization, global threats and privatization have changed traditional policing approaches. While challenging existing theoretical approaches in Anglo-Saxon policing studies, this editorial volume aims to promote critical law enforcement studies and the need for more empirical research and new conceptual methodologies in a digitized society. To cite this work/Para citar este trabajo: Vegh Weis, Valeria (2020) Policing in Times of Globalization. Counterterrorism Legislation as a Platform for the Militarization of Policing in Argentina, pp. 245-272, in: Veronika Nagy and Klára Kerezsi (eds.) A Critical Approach to Police Science. New Perspectives in Post-Transitional Policing Studies, Eleven.