Does crime breed authoritarianism? Crime exposure, democratic decoupling and political attitudes in Brazil

Bibliographic Data

ID3917523
AuthorsJuan Masullo (0000-0002-8537-2991, Department of Social and Political Sciences, University of Milan, Italy; and Institute of Political Science, Leiden University, the Netherlands, corresponding author), Krzysztof Krakowski (0000-0003-4731-8051, King's College London), Davide Morisi (0000-0002-0522-9360, University of Southern Denmark)
Year2025
Volume62
Issue5
Pages1393-1410
Publication date2025-09-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Peace Research (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-3433 • E-ISSN: 1460-3578
PublisherSAGE Publications Inc (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1177/00223433251347792
OpenAlexW4413901834
LanguageEN
Citations received8
References cited93

How does crime influence democratic attitudes and behaviors? Existing research offers conflicting answers: some argue that crime fosters antidemocratic preferences, while others suggest it increases democratic engagement. To reconcile this paradox, we conceptualize democracy as a multidimensional system with distinct components that can be decoupled. We distinguish between different (anti)democratic preferences tied to core democratic principles and argue that contextual exposure to crime may heighten support for undemocratic enforcement measures without eroding commitment to procedural democracy. To test this, we conducted a large online survey ( N = 3108) in Brazil - a country profoundly affected by various forms of crime - using two embedded experimental protocols. Our findings show that crime exposure increases support for unlawful enforcement practices, such as police overreach and vigilante justice, while leaving attitudes toward military coups, executive aggrandizement and support for democracy as the best form of government largely unaffected. Understanding this nuanced relationship is especially important in contexts where crime is pervasive and politically instrumentalized. That exposure to crime leads citizens to tolerate breaches of the rule of law in the name of public safety is deeply concerning. Yet, our results offer cautious optimism: support for undemocratic enforcement does not necessarily undermine broader democratic commitments

Authoritarianism · Computer security · Criminology · Decoupling (probability) · Democracy · Hate crime · Medical emergency · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Computer Science · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Engineering · Human Factors and Ergonomics · Law · Medicine · Psychology · Social Psychology · Wildlife Conservation and Criminology Analyses

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