Recent interest among Latin American scholars in the use of deadly force by police has led to the authoritarian-state hypothesis as an explanatory framework for the phenomenon. However, apart from its questionable assumptions regarding the development of a strong state in Latin America, this approach does not link the macro-level of analysis with the micro-level, which is related to ordinary situational encounters between police and citizens. An alternative model is proposed for explaining police violence, using the concept of situational uncertainty. The model links historical and cultural factors with empirical data on police-citizen encounters drawn from Latin America and elsewhere.
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