Security or Social Spending? Perceptions of Insecurity, Victimization, and Policy Priorities in Mexico and Brazil

Abstract

In Latin America, deep social inequalities coexist with persistent, high-level criminal violence. Facing competing needs and budget constraints, citizens in the region have to prioritize among different policy choices. We analyze how perceptions of insecurity and crime victimization shape attitudes toward budgetary priorities in social and security policies. Our analysis relies on original data from Mexico and Brazil, two countries exhibiting increased violence at the national level, albeit with important regional variation. We find that exposure to crime takes its toll on citizens’ policy priorities. In both Mexico and Brazil, citizens who feel insecure seem to prioritize public expenditure on the police over social investment policies. Victims of criminal violence are, however, mostly indifferent as to budgetary allocations across the security and social policy fields, suggesting that their spending priorities might diverge from these two spheres of government action or give rise to policy indifference.