Recently the Ministry of Interior announced in the Completed Homicide Report for the year 2023that the rate of homicide victims per 100 thousand inhabitants decreased since 6.7 (in 2022) to 6.3 in the last year.
This means that, comparatively, fewer homicide victims were recorded last year., which also represents a break in an upward trend that the index had experienced for some years.
However, this decrease in the homicide rate contrasts with the enormous feeling of insecurity of the Chilean population who, in the last National Urban Citizen Security Survey reached the 90.6%. This suggests that more than 90% of the people surveyed believe that crime increased in the country during 2022. Although the statistics for 2023 are not yet available, it is highly likely that the percentage is even higher.
This perception of insecurity has driven regulatory changes in the penal system. Last year was especially prolific in laws aimed at criminalizing new behaviors, toughening penalties for existing crimes, and extending the use of preventive detention. As is obvious, These modifications have exacerbated overcrowding problems in prisons.
On the point, a few days ago the Department of Statistics and Penitentiary Studies of the Gendarmerie From Chile reported that from December 2021 to March of this year the prison population (between convicted and accused) increased by 40.7%. This translates into increasingly higher numbers of overpopulation which currently exceed the 35%.
From these considerations, we can extract at least three relevant conclusions which, in turn, suggest some recommendations:
First of all the feeling of insecurity It is a real and widespread phenomenon in the Chilean community, which generate serious damage to the quality of life, physical and mental health of people (Gray, Jackson, Farral, 2015). It seems highly inadvisable for authorities to ignore its existence or downplay its importance in view of the decrease in the occurrence of certain types of crimes.
Indeed, foreign experience has shown that the existence of this feeling of insecurity – regardless of whether or not it is accompanied by an effective increase in crime – drags the population to support authoritarian political proposals, that involve the sacrifice of fundamental guarantees. Proof of this is the renewed debate on the death penalty.
Secondly, despite the legislative measures adopted in recent years to increase the severity of the penal system, the perception of insecurity persists. Although the prison population has increased significantly, people continue to fear being victims of crime and consider the penal system to be too lenient.
Certainly The media has influenced this perceptionby highlighting the supposed benevolence of criminal laws and judges towards the accused and convicted (Cabbage, 2009). Although it is a mistake to associate – in terms of causality – the feeling of insecurity with the communicative work of the media, it can be indicated that this has produced some effect.
The third and last consideration is that The feeling of insecurity cannot be the only antecedent that the legislator has in mind to make decisions in legislative matters.. Criminal and criminal procedural laws should be carefully adopted, taking into account – why not – the perception of the population, but also other types of background such as expert recommendations, real statistics and available resources, which allow the criminal law to influence positively in the effective reduction of crime.
In short, the statistical contradiction between the decrease in crime and the perception of insecurity should lead to reflection regarding the true need for legislative change. In that sense, It seems crucial to adopt strategies that precisely aim at crime prevention, beyond the field of criminal law.
An equitable and efficient distribution of the resources available in terms of security, direct confrontation with the phenomenon of organized crime and its complicated power networks (which even affect the functioning of prisons) and joint work between central governments and local governments, could favor the understanding that state authorities are doing their job in terms of security, and that we can continue to trust in our Rule of Law.
