Abstract

QUINTANA-NAVARRETE, Miguel  and  FONDEVILA, Gustavo. Solving the Problem: The Management of Public Security in Words. Gest. polít. pública [online]. 2015, vol.24, n.2, pp.305-337. ISSN 1405-1079.

This article's premise is that both social problems and their solutions (interventions) are socially constructed, and that their validity depends to an important degree upon the power wielded by the person or organizations that actively fabricate and sustain them. The article analyzes the construction of the diverse solutions to the crime problem favored by the Mexican presidents Ernesto Zedillo (1994-2000) and Vicente Fox (2000-2006), heads of the administrations more closely related to the Mexican transition to democracy. Through a systematic analysis of their speeches it is concluded that some of these solutions can be explained by the criminological theories and concepts that some authors have put forth in other contexts, mainly in the case of President Fox. This transitional period may signal an incipient tendency in Mexico towards the design of crime control and prevention interventions with postmodern characteristics.

Keywords : discourse analysis; crime control; postmodern criminology; social construction; public safety.

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