The Welfare State amid Crime: How Victimization and Perceptions of Insecurity Affect Social Policy Preferences in Latin America and the Caribbean*

IF 4.1 2区社会学 Q1 POLITICAL SCIENCE

Politics & Society Pub Date : 2020-08-11 DOI:10.1177/0032329220940850

Melina Altamirano, S. Berens, S. Ley

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引用次数: 10

Abstract

Criminal violence is one of the most pressing problems in Latin America and the Caribbean, with profound political consequences. Its effects on social policy preferences, however, remain largely unexplored. This article argues that to understand such effects it is crucial to analyze victimization experiences and perceptions of insecurity as separate phenomena with distinct attitudinal consequences. Heightened perceptions of insecurity are associated with a reduced demand for public welfare provision, as such perceptions reflect a sense of the state’s failure to provide public security. At the same time, acknowledging the mounting costs and needs that direct experience with crime entails, victimization is expected to increase support for social policies, particularly for health services. Survey data from twenty-four Latin American and Caribbean countries for the period 2008–12 show that perceptions of insecurity indeed reduce support for the state’s role in welfare provision, whereas crime victimization strongly increases such preferences.

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犯罪中的福利国家：受害和不安全感如何影响拉丁美洲和加勒比地区的社会政策偏好*

刑事暴力是拉丁美洲和加勒比地区最紧迫的问题之一，具有深远的政治后果。然而，它对社会政策偏好的影响在很大程度上仍未得到探索。本文认为，要理解这种影响，至关重要的是将受害经历和不安全感作为具有不同态度后果的独立现象进行分析。不安全感的增强与对公共福利的需求减少有关，因为这种感觉反映了国家未能提供公共安全的感觉。与此同时，由于认识到直接经历犯罪所带来的成本和需求不断增加，预计受害将增加对社会政策的支持，特别是对卫生服务的支持。2008-2012年期间，来自24个拉丁美洲和加勒比国家的调查数据显示，对不安全感的认知确实减少了对国家在福利提供中作用的支持，而犯罪受害大大增加了这种偏好。

本文章由计算机程序翻译，如有差异，请以英文原文为准。

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来源期刊

Politics & Society Multiple-

CiteScore

5.00

自引率

4.20%

发文量

期刊介绍： Politics & Society is a peer-reviewed journal. All submitted papers are read by a rotating editorial board member. If a paper is deemed potentially publishable, it is sent to another board member, who, if agreeing that it is potentially publishable, sends it to a third board member. If and only if all three agree, the paper is sent to the entire editorial board for consideration at board meetings. The editorial board meets three times a year, and the board members who are present (usually between 9 and 14) make decisions through a deliberative process that also considers written reports from absent members. Unlike many journals which rely on 1–3 individual blind referee reports and a single editor with final say, the peers who decide whether to accept submitted work are thus the full editorial board of the journal, comprised of scholars from various disciplines, who discuss papers openly, with author names known, at meetings. Editors are required to disclose potential conflicts of interest when evaluating manuscripts and to recuse themselves from voting if such a potential exists.