Abstract

OTAMENDI, María Alejandra. Public Punitiveness as an Instrumental and Expressive Reaction against Threats at the Beginning of the 21st Century. Evidence of the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires. CS [online]. 2020, n.31, pp.77-108. ISSN 2011-0324.  https://doi.org/10.18046/recs.i31.3720.

From a sociological perspective of social psychology, this paper enquires whether the evolution of the demand for more severe punishment to offenders in public opinion (public punitiveness) in the Metropolitan Area of Buenos Aires between 2000 and 2005 was a reaction against security threats (instrumental hypothesis) or a collective reaction to other threats such as economic, social, and political insecurities that were channeled into a greater hostility towards criminals (expressive hypothesis). In order to test these hypotheses, the waves of the Victimization Survey of the National Division of Criminal Policy were analyzed. It was concluded that, although the punitive reaction corresponds relatively to the levels of criminal threat, it was even greater when it was politicized in a punitive sense in the public sphere (Blumberg case), showing that it was both an instrumental and an expressive response.

Keywords : Public Punitiveness; Public Opinion; Punishment.

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