Goals Met or Just Empty Promises? First Version of the Democratic Security Policy in Colombia
La serie Borradores de Economía es una publicación de la Subgerencia de Estudios Económicos del Banco de la República. Los trabajos son de carácter provisional, las opiniones y posibles errores son responsabilidad exclusiva del autor y sus contenidos no comprometen al Banco de la República ni a su Junta Directiva.
Exploiting spatial and temporal variations in the number of seizures from criminal organizations, I estimate regional fixed effects models of the increase in the number of properties confiscated on the main crime rates. From 2002 security strategies changed, and as a result, the effects on crime rates are mostly large, negative and significant. There was a clear reduction in crimes commonly committed by organized criminals, including guerrillas, paramilitaries and drug-traffickers, such as auto-theft, terrorism, terrestrial piracy, and kidnappings. In contrast, crimes usually committed by common criminals, such as street robberies and burglaries were unaffected by the new security policy.
The opinions expressed here are those of the authors and not necessarily of the Banco de la República, the Colombian Central Bank, nor of its Board of Directors. Any remaining errors are my own.
