ORCID

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9654-1335

Date of Award

Spring 2025

Language

English

Embargo Period

4-25-2025

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

College/School/Department

School of Criminal Justice

Program

Criminal Justice

First Advisor

William Alex Pridemore

Second Advisor

Matt Vogel

Committee Members

Theodore Wilson, Andrés Villarreal, Meghan Rogers

Keywords

Homicide, Latin America, Acquisitive Crime, Inflation, Trust, Criminal Group, Mexico, Argentina, Military Intervention

Subject Categories

Criminology

Abstract

Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) represent 8 percent of the global population but about one-third of global homicides, yet interpersonal violence in the region receives limited attention in the English-language literature. This dissertation contains three distinct studies of the causes and consequences of crime and violence in LAC. The first study examines the predictive effects of inflation on robbery, burglary, and homicide rates in Argentina, which possesses one of the highest robbery rates worldwide and has endured high inflation – and, at times, hyperinflation – for years. I obtained annual crime data for 1973-2022 from the National Criminal Information System, homicide data for 1973-2021 from the World Health Organization (WHO), and inflation data from the World Bank. I employed time series models to examine this association. Second, Mexico has an extremely high homicide rate, driven largely by cartel violence, and prior studies in LAC suggested some state interventions may exacerbate, not reduce, violence. I employed panel data for a sample of 2,429 municipalities from 2000 and 2022 to evaluate the impact of military intervention on homicide and gun homicide rates in Mexican municipalities. Using annual homicide data from the National Institute of Statistics and Geography and military intervention data from the Mexican armed forces, I will employ Two-Way-Fixed-Effect (TWFE)-Difference-in-Difference models to determine the impact of military intervention on total homicide and gun homicide rates. Finally, while there are many studies of the causes of variation in national violence rates, there are few studies of the national-level consequences of high violence rates, especially in LAC. I undertook a cross-national study of the effects of the homicide rate on citizens’ trust in the police, the judiciary system, and people in LAC. Using data from 16 LAC nations from 1996 to 2020, homicide data from the WHO, and survey data on trust from Latinobarómetro, I tested for associations via TWFE panel models.

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This work is licensed under the University at Albany Standard Author Agreement.

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