NCJ Number
179903
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 15 Issue: 4 Dated: November 1999 Pages: 352-369
Date Published
1999
Length
18 pages
Annotation
Ethnographic methods consisting mainly of participant observation, interviews, and analyses of secondary sources were used to examine the historical development of the government security forces in Mexico and to consider how widespread corruption and its tolerance have developed extralegality as the rule rather than the exception and have hampered efforts to address organized crime.
Abstract
The central question for Mexico currently is whether the violence, insecurity for people and property, boom of drug cartels, and growing presence of the military are becoming too great an obstacle to democracy. Literature on organized crime in Mexico is generally lacking, but it is usually common knowledge that organized crime has flourished within the government apparatus. The predatory ethic of corruption has made Mexican security, intelligence, and law enforcement elites the principal actors at the core of organized crime. This situation also helps explain the country's failure to reduce organized crime. Mexico has taken a systems approach to harmonizing criminal justice in the country through the National Plan of Development 1994-2000 passed by Congress in 1995 and the National Crusade Against Crime and Delinquency of 1998. However, the new leaders elected in 2000 will be facing dysfunctional police agencies with deficient organization and management at all levels, a lack of systematic controls and evaluation, a strong system of patronage, and an institutionalized system of corruption that is unlikely to end in the short-term. Notes and 43 references