ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the ways in which these three factors have allowed politicians to turn mano dura into a rallying cry in many countries in the region, and why this message has proven quite popular with key segments of the electorate. In the 1980s and 1990s, democratization was supposed to bring a change to policing practices. High rates of violent crime have made it difficult for many countries to jettison authoritarian and repressive policing practices. Oftentimes, poor police performance and low levels of public trust in police are used as a pretext for implementing mano dura policies. Mano dura policies are typically pitched as quick fixes to the problem of high crime, particularly when police performance is subpar. Instead, mano dura policies tend to have a ratcheting effect, steadily increasing over time and rarely decreasing when in fact crime does go down.
