Dilemmas of substitution: Why the urban poor support punitive policing in a Latin American city

Abstract

In the Global South, the urban poor are heavily policed and bear the brunt of police violence. Evidence suggests that the urban poor also support punitive policing. Why do those individuals most affected by police violence also appear to support increased police presence in their neighborhoods? Combining extensive fieldwork with a public opinion survey in Montevideo, the capital of Uruguay, this paper develops a theory that the urban poor support punitive policing because it reduces other forms of violence they are routinely exposed to in public spaces. Our argument contrasts with the prevalent hypothesis that support for punitive policing amongst the urban poor originates in conservative views of security provision. Because Uruguay is a least likely case for this argument, our results are highly informative. The results demonstrate the deeply unequal distribution of the lived experience of authoritarian coercive practices in an otherwise democratic context.