Criminal Governance in Latin America

Abstract

Criminal governance understood as the regulation of social order, including informal or illegal economies through the establishment of formal and informal institutions that replace, complement, or compete with the state and distribute public goods (e.g., social services, justice, and security) is an expanding area of inquiry in the field of criminology. This analysis, which centers on Latin America, a region beset by this problem, unpacks specific dimensions of this concept including the overlap between the state and criminal orders, the relationship between violence and consent, and violence management through selective forms of enforcement. In so doing it sheds light on how changes in the architecture of governance of many underprivileged communities across the world, but especially in the Global South, is affecting in critical ways the lives and wellbeing of millions of individuals. The discussion underscores the need to reinforce interdisciplinary work linking criminology and other disciplines (e.g., political science, sociology, law, anthropology) as a way to enhance our understanding of the profound impact that criminal governance orders have on the political and social dimensions of contemporary societies.

Law of the Outlaw

“…Indeed, much contemporary research on gangs in Latin America in fact explicitly explores how gangs and other criminal groups manage conflict, impose specific rules and norms, and generally promote a form of "criminal governance" (Mantilla and Feldmann 2021). Rivke Jaffe (2013), for example, has described gangs as facilitating localised forms of "hybrid citizenship" in deprived neighbourhoods of Kingston, Jamaica, through their assumption of governance functions that the Jamaican state does no provide, including the provision of infrastructural services, jobs, financial loans, and even healthcare.…”

Sustaining criminal governance with horror: The use of extra-lethal violence to regulate community life

“…3. Criminal civilians: When armed groups exercise territorial control, they not only establish codes of behaviour for their members, but many have also established a system of rules for criminals outside their structure 88,89 . Some armed groups have established punishments for those who engage in theft within the community, 90 sexual violence, 91 drug use, 92 or so-called "social cleansing" campaigns in the name of stopping waves of violence.…”

Gobernanzas criminales

“…Finalmente, Mantilla y Feldmann (2021) llaman la atención sobre el hecho de que la mayoría de literatura se ha concentrado en espacios urbanos y ha dejado de lado las aproximaciones rurales. Allí existe un espacio de desarrollo científico en el que es importante la emergencia de trabajos en áreas de género, raza, clase, derechos humanos y asuntos medioambientales (Mantilla & Feldmann, 2021).…”