Tempering the Taste for Vengeance: Information About Prisoners and Policy Choices in Chile

• Published date: 01 September 2023
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1177/00104140221141836
• Author: Fernando G. Cafferata,Daniel W. Gingerich,Carlos Scartascini
• Date: 01 September 2023
• Subject Matter: Articles

Article

Comparative Political Studies

2023, Vol. 56(10) 1506–1536

© The Author(s) 2022

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DOI: 10.1177/00104140221141836

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Tempering the Taste for

Vengeance: Information

About Prisoners and

Policy Choices in Chile

Fernando G. Cafferata

1

, Daniel W. Gingerich

2

, and

Carlos Scartascini

3



Abstract

Punitive anti-crime policies in the Americas have contributed to steadily

increasing rates of incarceration. Harsh penalties are often demanded by

citizens, making them attractive to politicians. Yet the contextual determi-

nants of participation in crime are rarely understood by the public. In this

article, we employ a survey experiment conducted in Chile in order to

examine how the provision of information about the prison population shapes

tastes for punitive anti-crime policies. Respondents in the treatment group

received information about the low educational attainment of prisoners. This

information led to substantial changes in policy preferences. Tasked with

allocating resources to anti-crime policies using a f‌ixed budget, treated re-

spondents assigned between 20% and 50% more to socially oriented anti-

crime policies (relative to punitive policies) than respondents in the control

group, and they reduced their support for “iron f‌ist”policing. Our f‌indings

suggest that providing information to citizens might change the policy

equilibrium in the Americas.

1

Inter-American Development Bank, Brasilia, Brazil

2

University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA, USA

3

Inter-American Development Bank, Washington, DC, USA

Corresponding Author:

Daniel W. Gingerich, University of Virginia, PO Box 400787, Charlottesville, VA 22904-4787,

USA.

Email: dwg4c@virginia.edu

Keywords

survey experiments, information, beliefs, crime, public policy

JEL: D91, D78, H42, K14

Latin America suffers an imprisonment crisis. Approximately 1.4 million

people (including both pre-trial detainees and convicts) are held in penal

institutionsin the region, representing 12.6%of the world’sdetainees(Vil alt a &

Fondevila, 2019).

1

Out of every 100,000 inhabitants in the region, 241 are in

prison (about twice the level in the European Union). To a large extent, this

situation ref‌lects recent trends: on average, the level of incarceration in the

region has increased by 76% in the last 10 years. The growth in incarceration

has been driven by increased admissions, longer sentences (particularly for

violent crimes), and a substantial increase in the use of pre-trial detention for

extended periods oftime. Approximately 41% of those in custody have notyet

received a sentence (Serrano, 2018).

2

The high number of prisoners creates

serious problems of overcrowding (UNDP, 2013;Vilalta & Fondevila, 2019).

The poor living conditions of inmates cause environmental strain and fuel

misconduct, often leading to prison riots, parole violations, and recidivism

(Vilalta& Fondevila, 2019).Communicable diseases also run rampant in these

conditions, threatening the lives of both prisoners and the general population

(Dolan et al., 2007). Theconnection between overcrowdingand communicable

diseases became particularly salient during the COVID-19 pandemic. Many

countries opted for commuting sentences, pardoning inmates, or moving in-

mates out of prisons, which fueled discontent among many citizens without

addressing potential failures in the underlying policies.

Some authors have linked increasing incarceration rates to the rise of

punitive attitudes and hence citizen demand for punitive policies in Latin

America (Chevigny, 2003;Dammert & Salazar, 2009;Müller, 2012;

Otamendi, 2015;Stippel & Serrano Moreno, 2018). Societies where public

opinion favors harsh penalties tend to embrace politicians willing to enact

them, as was the case in the United States during the 1970s (Gottlieb, 2017).

Once enacted, such policies are subject to “ratchet effects.”In spite of the

prodigious and sustained decrease in crime in the United States during the

period from the early 1990s to the onset of the pandemic, punitive anti-crime

policies persisted without major changes, contributing to the world’s highest

incarceration rate.

The internalization of information about crime seems to be an important

driver of public policy demand for harsher sentences, even if that information

is not factually accurate (Gingerich & Scartascini, 2022a).

3

Crime salience,

fear of crime, and general concern about crime are all factors that inf‌luence

punitive attitudes (Price et al., 2019;Spiranovic et al., 2012). Perhaps

Cafferata et al. 1507