Abstract

TAMAYO ARBOLEDA, Fernando León  and  ORREGO FERNANDEZ, David. Urban Enemies: Crime Control and Governance of Homeless People in Bogotá. Rev. Derecho [online]. 2020, n.53, pp.232-253.  Epub June 10, 2021. ISSN 0121-8697.  https://doi.org/10.14482/dere.53.364.

In this paper we study how the legal subject “homeless” (habitante de la calle) was created in Colombia, and how it allowed certain ways of governance in contemporary cities. Focusing on the Colombian case, we argue that contemporary forms of control were only possible when the subject ‘homeless’ was distanced from other concepts such as lazy, indigent or mad. Furthermore, we make an analysis of the legal frame and academic discourses that developed the new subject of government, and studied how they legitimized new forms of crime control and new ways of organizing urban spaces. In order to do so, a case study of Bogota has been conducted focusing on national and local regulations on the matter, as well as on the discourses on security, crime control and government of problematic populations in both scales of the state administration.

Keywords : Homeless; city; vagrant; mad; social control; criminality.

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