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Repressive measures that have targeted youth gangs and criminalized the younger generation threaten the progress of both human rights and democracy.

Safety in the Latin America Cities : Uncivil Societies Under Democratic Rule
Paulo Sérgio PINHEIRO
Democratic governance has been unable in this continent to implement or to propose reforms for those institutions, as the judiciary, the public prosecutors office and the police. Violent crime and delinquency have increased in Latin American societies, particularly in the 1980's and the 1990's. Crimes against life and physical integrity - homicide, assault, rape - have risen sharply. There is a strong correlation between the places where the poor live and violence, and violent death. Those districts of the city of Sao Paulo with the worst social indicators are precisely those with the highest numbers for homicides.
The rule of law which is discussed here must not be equated with the enforcement of criminal law, precisely because one of the cardinal features of the criminal law is its discriminatory character.
Despite ail the obstacles which we discussed and analysed here and the failure of present State institutions to enforce the rule of law, it is important to acknowledge that civilian rule and « formal democracy »- to use Agnes Heller expression with all its limitations in Latin America has opened new perspectives for democratic consolidation processes which now necessarily encompasses the appropriation of rights by the underprivileged.

Em conseqüênda das gravíssimas desigualdades econômicas e sociais que caracterizam o amplíssimo mhiato, quases sem rupturas, faz séculos, entre as classes dominantes e a maioria da população, hoje no Brasil está vigente um regime de apartheid dos pobres. Este regime quase não necessita de leis porque está firmemente consolidado nas práticas de uma sociedade hierarquizada que se manifesta por uma cultura autoritária sui generis, dissimulada por uma ideologia de conciliação.[...]