Why Democracies Struggle with Brutality: Institutional Failures in Mexico

Accountability Civil-Military Relations Crime Human Rights Mexico policing rule of law Law Courts Justice @APSR 4 R files 4 Stata files 4 datasets Dataverse

Societies face a challenge in restraining coercive institutions like the police force to create more humane criminal justice systems.

We demonstrate that two factors explain torture's persistence even in democratic societies:

Weak procedural protections
The militarization of policing, which introduces strategies, equipment, and mentality treating suspects as enemies in wartime

Our study uses a large survey of the Mexican prison population. Data from over 800 respondents reveals that police brutality is not merely an isolated issue but widespread.

Key findings:

Torture rates are highest among those arrested at night or outside prison walls
Militarization correlates strongly with increased use of force against suspects

This reform has yielded unexpected results. Despite abolishing inquisitorial criminal justice institutions, a colonial legacy, Mexican authorities continue struggling to address widespread police brutality.

Article card for article: Institutionalized Police Brutality: Torture, the Militarization of Security and the Reform of Inquisitorial Criminal Justice in Mexico

Institutionalized Police Brutality: Torture, the Militarization of Security and the Reform of Inquisitorial Criminal Justice in Mexico was authored by Beatriz Magaloni and Luis Rodriguez. It was published by Cambridge in APSR in 2020.