Book Description
ABSTRACT: This dissertation examines the effect of democratization and legitimacy of law and legal authorities on victimization among individuals in 12 Latin American countries, using data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). Much research in Latin America either focuses on individual countries within the region or lumps a group of dissimilar countries together in order to examine trends and patterns of victimization. However, scholars agree that the political contexts of each country can be vastly different in many cases. Therefore, this dissertation also examines the differences among the countries with regard to legitimacy and democratization as well as the differences in victimization. Furthermore this dissertation compares results for individual victimization for each country to the aggregated results from responses of individuals across the 12 Latin American countries.