ABSTRACT

In recent decades, violent robbery, various kinds of kidnapping, murder, and street violence have become distressingly familiar in many parts of Mexico. A palpable sense, or perception, of insecurity is now an integral part of many people’s everyday life. As in other similar cases, the public clamors for something to be done. And the politicians? The politicians get tough on crime, in sound bites but also in policies. And yet the crime rates either don’t go down, or when they do the generalized sense of insecurity doesn’t.