Deepening the Federative Pact? The Dilma Government’s Approach to Crime, Justice and Policing

Abstract

This article argues that the Rousseff government faced the challenge of deepening a reconfigured federative pact in relation to crime and public insecurity. Strengthening of federal level justice institutions began tentatively under the second Cardoso administration, and accelerated during President Da Silva’s second term. However, it required greater capacity to provide leadership to law-and-order agencies at state and municipal level, and to coordinate multi-agency action both horizontally (with the armed forces) and vertically (with municipal and state police and prison authorities). This was essential to tackle what Dilma’s government identified as the most pressing problems of drug consumption and cross-border trafficking, organized crime networks, prison management and other forms of social and criminal violence. Increased activism by federal and municipal authorities on public insecurity could not circumvent entirely the need for some key structural reforms affecting the state-level justice authorities that were likely to exact a high political price.

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