Citizen Cooperation with the Police: Evidence from Contemporary Guatemala

Abstract

Community policing, and citizen cooperation with law enforcement more broadly, can improve local security outcomes by providing decentralized mechanisms for police accountability to local citizens. We hypothesize that five factors—alignment of citizen/police interests, relative costs of cooperation, costs of crime, prevalence of others’ cooperation, and perceived police efficacy—comprise a decision framework that guides citizens’ choices regarding whether to share information with law enforcement. We find evidence for this framework using rich survey and survey experimental data from a large nation-wide survey of Guatemalans and municipal administrative data. Our results indicate that increasing police efficacy, witness protection, and neighborhood trust boost the odds of cooperation with police by up to 55%. At a time when conversations about the relationship between community and police are widespread, this research offers insights into conditions under which cooperation between community members and law enforcement is most likely to occur.

Keywords

community policing security Guatemala Latin America

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Abbink

(2004). Staff rotation as an anti-corruption policy: An experimental study. European Journal of Political Economy, 20(4), 887–906. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ejpoleco.2003.10.008

Akerlof

Yellen

J. L.

(1994). Gang behavior, law enforcement, and community values. In Values and public policy. Brookings Institution.

Argueta

(2015). Community policing in Guatemala: Continuity in self-defence? Revista de ciencia política (Santiago), 35(3), 559–580. https://doi.org/10.4067/s0718-090x2015000300005

Argueta

Kurtenbach

(2017). Guatemala: National fragmentation, local cohesion. In Cox

F. D.

Sisk

T. D.

(Eds.), Peacebuilding in deeply divided societies (pp. 33–64). Springer International Publishing.

Asbury

B. D.

(2011). Anti-snitching norms and community loyalty. Oregon Law Review, 89(4), 1257–1312.http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.1491630

B. A.

Dean

Mummolo

Rivera

(2021). The role of officer race and gender in police-civilian interactions in Chicago. Science, 371(6530), 696–702. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd8694

Barnes

(2017). Criminal politics: An integrated approach to the study of organized crime, politics, and violence. Perspectives on Politics, 15(4), 967–987. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592717002110

Bateson

(2012). Crime victimization and political participation. American Political Science Review, 106(3), 570–587. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055412000299

Bateson

(2013). Order and violence in postwar Guatemala. PhD Dissertation, Yale University.

10.

Bauer

Blattman

Chytilová

Henrich

Miguel

Mitts

(2016). Can war foster cooperation? Journal of Economic Perspectives, 30(3), 249–274. https://doi.org/10.1257/jep.30.3.249

11.

Bhavnani

R. R.

Alexander

(2018). Local embeddedness and bureaucratic performance: Evidence from India. The Journal of Politics, 80(1), 71–87. https://doi.org/10.1086/694101

12.

Bicchieri

(2005). The grammar of society: The nature and dynamics of social norms. Cambridge University Press.

13.

Blair

Weinstein

Christia

, et al. (2021). Does community policing build trust in police anD REDUCE CRime? Evidence from six coordinated field experiments in the global south. Science, 374(6571). https://doi.org/10.1126/science.abd344

14.

Blair

R. A.

2018. Legitimacy after violence: Evidence from two lab-in-the-field experiments in Liberia. Working paper.

15.

Blair

R. A.

Karim

Gilligan

Beardsley

(Forthcoming). Policing ethnicity: Lab-in-the-field evidence on discrimination, cooperation, and ethnic balancing in the Liberian national police. Quarterly Journal of Political Science.

16.

Blair

R. A.

Karim

S. M.

Morse

B. S.

(2019). Establishing the rule of law in weak and war-torn states: *Evidence from a field experiment with the Liberian national police. American Political Science Review, 113(3), 641–657. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000121

17.

Bowles

Garcia Reyes

Garoupa

(2009). Crime reporting decisions and the costs of crime. European Journal on Criminal Policy & Research, 15(4), 365–377. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10610-009-9109-8

18.

Brockmann

Genschel

Seelkopf

(2016). Happy taxation: Increasing tax compliance through positive rewards? Journal of Public Policy, 36(3), 381–406. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0143814x15000331

19.

Buckley

Frye

Scott

McCarthy

L. A.

(2016). Cooperating with the State: Evidence from survey experiments on policing. Journal of Experimental Political Science, 3(2), 124–139. https://doi.org/10.1017/xps.2015.18

20.

Carr

(2015). Kill the snitch: How Henriquez-Rivas affects asylum eligibility for people who report serious gang crimes to law enforcement. Washington Law Review, 91(3), 1313–1354. https://digitalcommons.law.uw.edu/wlr/vol91/iss3/12/

21.

Chalfin

(2015). Economic costs of crime. In Jennings

W.G.

(Ed.), The encyclopedia of crime & punishment. (pp. 1–12). John Wiley & Sons. eprint. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/9781118519639.wbecpx193

22.

Cruz

J. M.

(2015). Police misconduct and political legitimacy in central America. Journal of Latin American Studies, 47(2), 251–283. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0022216x15000085

23.

Curtice

(2019). Police and co-ethnic bias: Evidence from a conjoint experiment in Uganda. Working paper.

24.

Dafoe

Zhang

Caughey

(2018). Information equivalence in survey experiments. Political Analysis, 26(4), 399–416. https://doi.org/10.1017/pan.2018.9

25.

Davenport

Soule

S. A.

Armstrong

D. A.

(2011). Protesting while Black?: The differential policing of American activism, 1960 to 1990. American Sociological Review, 76(1), 152–178. https://doi.org/10.1177/0003122410395370

26.

Denny

Dow

Pitts

Wibbels

(2022). Replication data for: Citizen cooperation with the police: Evidence from contemporary. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/9JHGVS

27.

Dorff

(2017). Violence, kinship networks, and political resilience: Evidence from Mexico. Journal of Peace Research, 54(4), 558–573. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022343317691329

28.

Dudley

(2016). Homicides in Guatemala: The challenge and lessons of disaggregating gang-related and drug trafficking-related murders. Technical report USAID.

29.

Egami

Imai

(2019). Causal interaction in factorial experiments: Application to conjoint analysis. Journal of the American Statistical Association, 114(526), 529–540. https://doi.org/10.1080/01621459.2018.1476246

30.

Felson

(2006). Crime and nature. SAGE.

31.

Flores-Macias

Zarkin

(2019). The militarization of law enforcement: Evidence from Latin America. Perspectives on Politics, 19(2), 1–20. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592719003906

32.

Flores-Macias

Zarkin

(2021). Militarization and perceptions of law enforcement in the developing world: Evidence from a conjoint experiment in Mexico. British Journal of Political Science, 52(3), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123421000259

33.

Fontes

A. W.

(2019). Portrait of a ‘real’ Marero: Fantasy and falsehood in stories of gang violence. Ethnography, 20(3), 320–341. https://doi.org/10.1177/1466138118805123

34.

Gangl

Torgler

Kirchler

(2016). Patriotism’s impact on cooperation with the state: An experimental study on tax compliance. Political Psychology, 37(6), 867–881. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.12294

35.

Gingerich

D. W.

Oliveros

(2018). Police violence and the underreporting of crime. Economics & Politics, 30(1), 78–105. https://doi.org/10.1111/ecpo.12102

36.

Glebbeek

M-L.

(2001). Police reform and the peace process in Guatemala: The fifth promotion of the National civilian police. Bulletin of Latin American Research, 20(4), 431–453. https://doi.org/10.1111/1470-9856.00024

37.

Gonzalez

(2016). Varieties of participatory security: Assessing community participation in policing in Latin America: Community participation in policing in Latin America. Public Administration and Development, 36(2), 132–143. https://doi.org/10.1002/pad.1752

38.

González

Y. M.

(2021). Authoritarian police in democracy: Contested security in Latin America. Cambridge University Press.

39.

Gutiérrez

(2016). Guatemala elites and organized crime. Technical report InSight Crime & International Development Research Centre.

40.

Haim

Nanes

Davidson

(2021). Family matters: The double-edged sword of police-community connections. Journal of Politics, 83(4). https://doi.org/10.1086/715071

41.

Hainmueller

Hopkins

D. J.

Yamamoto

(2014). Causal inference in conjoint analysis: Understanding multidimensional choices via stated preference experiments. Political Analysis, 22(1), 1–30. https://doi.org/10.1093/pan/mpt024

42.

Hochmüller

Müller

M-M.

(2017). Countering criminal insurgencies: Fighting gangs and building resilient communities in post-war Guatemala. In Moe

Müller

(Eds.), Reconfiguring intervention (pp. 163–186). Palgrave Macmillan.

43.

Howell

K. B.

(2009). Broken lives from broken windows: The hidden costs of aggressive order-maintenance policing (pp. 271–326). New York University Review of Law & Social Change.

44.

Conrad

C. R.

(2020). Monitoring via the courts: Judicial oversight and police violence in India. International Studies Quarterly. Forthcoming.

45.

ICG, (2018). Saving Guatemala’s fight against crime and impunity. Technical report International Crisis Group.

46.

Kalyvas

(2006). The logic of violence in civil war. Cambridge University Press.

47.

Karim

S. M.

(2020). Relational state building in areas of limited statehood: Experimental evidence on the attitudes of the police. American Political Science Review, 114(1), 536–551. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000716

48.

Leeper

(2019). Cregg: Simple conjoint analyses and visualization. R package.

49.

Leeper

T. J.

Hobolt

S. B.

Tilley

(2019). Measuring subgroup preferences in conjoint experiments. Political Analysis, 28(2), 1–15. https://doi.org/10.7910/DVN/ARHZU4

50.

Lessing

(2020). Conceptualizing criminal governance. Perspectives on Politics, 19(3), 854–873. https://doi.org/10.1017/s1537592720001243

51.

Levi

(1988). Of rule and revenue. University of California Press.

52.

Ley

(2018). To vote or not to vote: How criminal violence shapes electoral participation. Journal of Conflict Resolution, 62(9), 1963–1990. https://doi.org/10.1177/0022002717708600

53.

Lundman

R. J.

Kaufman

R. L.

(2003). Driving while Black: Effects of race, ethnicity, and gender on citizen self-reports of traffic stops and police actions. Criminology, 41(1), 195–220. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2003.tb00986.x

54.

Magaloni

Franco-Vivanco

Melo

(2020). Killing in the slums: Social order, criminal governance, and police violence in rio de Janeiro. American Political Science Review, 114(2), 552–572. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055419000856

55.

Melde

Rennison

C. M.

(2010). Intimidation and street gangs: Understanding the response of victims and bystanders to perceived gang violence. Justice Quarterly, 27(5), 619–666. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820903228858

56.

Melnikov

Schmidt-Padilla

Micaela Sviatschi

(2021). Gangs, labor mobility and development. NBER Working Paper 27832.

57.

Moncada

(2009). Toward democratic policing in Colombia? Institutional accountability through lateral reform. Comparative Politics, 41(4), 431–449. https://doi.org/10.5129/001041509X12911362972511

58.

Moran

(2011). Crime and corruption in new democracies: The politics of (In)Security. Palgrave Macmillan UK.

59.

Nanes

M. J.

(2018). Policing in divided societies: Officer inclusion, citizen cooperation, and crime prevention (pp. 1–25). Conflict Management and Peace Science.

60.

Natapoff

(2009). Snitching: Criminal informants and the erosion of American justice. NYU Press.

61.

O’Donnell

(1993). On the state, democratization and some conceptual problems: A Latin American view with glances at some postcommunist countries. World Development, 21(8), 1355–1369.

62.

Papp

Smith

Wareham

(2019). Fear of retaliation and citizen willingness to cooperate with police. Policing and Society, 29(6), 623–639. https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2017.1307368

63.

Pfuhl

(1992). Crimestoppers: The legitimation of snitching. Justice Quarterly, 9(3), 505–528. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418829200091501

64.

Reisig

(2000). Experience, quality of life, and neighborhood context: A hierarchical analysis of satisfaction with police. Justice Quarterly, 17(3), 607–630. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820000094681

65.

Snyder

Durán-Martínez

(2009). Does illegality breed violence? Drug trafficking and state-sponsored protection rackets. Crime, Law and Social Change, 52, 253–273. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10611-009-9195-z

66.

Sønderskov

K. M.

Peter Thisted DinesenFinkel

S. E.

Hansen

K. M.

(2022). Crime victimization increases turnout: Evidence from individual-level administrative panel data. British Journal of Political Science, 52(1), 399–407. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007123420000162

67.

Soss

Weaver

(2017). Police are our government: Politics, political science, and the policing of race–class subjugated communities. Annual Review of Political Science, 20(1), 565–591. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-060415-093825

68.

Sullivan

C. M.

(2016). Political repression and the destruction of dissident organizations: Evidence from the archives of the Guatemalan national police. World Politics, 68(4), 645–676. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0043887116000125

69.

Sun

I. Y.

(2018). Police legitimacy and citizen cooperation in China: Testing an alternative model. Asian Journal of Criminology, 13(4), 275–291. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11417-018-9270-4

70.

Tankebe

(2009). Public cooperation with the police in Ghana: Does procedural fairness matter? Criminology, 47(4), 29. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2009.00175.x

71.

Tankebe

(2013). Viewing things differently: The dimensions of public perceptions of police legitimacy. Criminology, 51(1), 103–135. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.2012.00291.x

72.

Tellez

Wibbels

Krishna

(2020). Local order, policing, and bribes: Evidence from India. World Politics. Forthcoming.

73.

Tilly

(1992). Coercion, capital and European states. AD 990-1992. Wiley-Blackwell.

74.

Trelles

Carreras

(2013). Bullets and votes: Violence and electoral participation in Mexico. Journal of Politics in Latin America, 4(2), 89–123. https://doi.org/10.1177/1866802X1200400204

75.

Troyer

Wesley Younts

(1997). Whose expectations matter? The relative power of first- and second-order expectations in determining social influence. American Journal of Sociology, 103(3), 692–732. https://doi.org/10.1086/231253

76.

Tyler

T. R.

(2004). Enhancing police legitimacy. The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 593(1), 84–99. https://doi.org/10.1177/0002716203262627

77.

Tyler

T. R.

(2005). Policing in Black and White: Ethnic group differences in trust and confidence in the police. Police Quarterly, 8(3), 322–342. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098611104271105

78.

UNHCR (2018). Eligibility guidelines for assessing the International protection needs of asylum-seekers from Guatemala. Technical report.

79.

Visconti

(2020). Policy preferences after crime victimization: Panel and survey evidence from Latin America. British Journal of Political Science, 50(4), 1481–1495. https://doi.org/10.1017/s000712341800029

80.

Whitaker

G. P.

(1980). Coproduction: Citizen participation in service delivery. Public Administration Review, 40(3), 240. https://doi.org/10.2307/975377

81.

Sun

Triplett

(2009). Race, class or neighborhood context: Which matters more in measuring satisfaction with police? Justice Quarterly, 26(1), 125–156. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418820802119950

Supplementary Material

Please find the following supplemental material available below.

For Open Access articles published under a Creative Commons License, all supplemental material carries the same license as the article it is associated with.

For non-Open Access articles published, all supplemental material carries a non-exclusive license, and permission requests for re-use of supplemental material or any part of supplemental material shall be sent directly to the copyright owner as specified in the copyright notice associated with the article.

0.00 MB

0.45 MB