Punitive Policing in the Americas

Police violence remains pervasive across democratic societies in the Americas. This review brings the US literature on policing into dialogue with comparative research on Latin America to identify common forces that sustain what we call punitive policing—systems of law enforcement that systematically violate human rights, rely on excessive surveillance and coercion, and disproportionately target marginalized populations. Synthesizing scholarship from both regions, the review highlights three factors that help explain the persistence of punitive policing: colonial legacies, the militarization of public security, and deeply entrenched racial and socioeconomic inequalities that shape how police are deployed and whom they target with violence. Our review shows that punitive policing is a governance problem that undermines legitimacy, public safety, citizenship, and democratic stability. Yet the evidence also suggests that meaningful reform is possible when bottom-up, coordinated mobilization converges with top-down institutional intervention to constrain punitive policing.