The Problems and Promises of Research on Deaths Due to Legal Intervention in Latin America

Abstract

This research note aims to answer the following questions: (a) How do Latin American authorities systematize and report data regarding deaths due to legal intervention? (b) To what extent is this information public and available? (c) Can this information help to better understand and compare regional patterns of lethal violence perpetrated by the State? Research findings suggest that data regarding deaths due to legal intervention are still an unreliable source of information, thereby hampering any cross-national comparison of how lethal violence is exercised by the State in Latin America.