Goals Met or Just Empty Promises? First Version of the Democratic Security Policy in Colombia
The series Working Papers on Economics is published by the Office for Economic Studies at the Banco de la República (Central Bank of Colombia). The works published are provisional, and their authors are fully responsible for the opinions expressed in them, as well as for possible mistakes. The opinions expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of Banco de la República or its Board of Directors.
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.