Dissertation Andrea Romo.Pdf
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Gender biased police misbehaviour. An analysis of deviant police practices and female offenders' experiences in Ecuador (1979-2010) Dissertation zur Erlangung des Grades eines Doktors der Philosophie am Fachbereich Geschichts- und Kulturwissenschaften der Freien Universität Berlin vorgelegt von Andrea Romo Pérez Berlin im September 2018 1. Gutachter/in: Prof. Dr. Debora Gerstenberger Freie Universität Berlin Lateinamerika Institut (LAI) 2. Gutachter: Prof.Dr. Markus Michael Müller Freie Universität Berlin Lateinamerika Institut (LAI) Tag der Disputation: 05.02.2019 Acknowledgments I would like to thank God for allowing me to conduct this exciting and important research project. I would also like to thank a number of people special to me because, without their help and guidance, the completion of this dissertation would have not been possible. Pro- fessors Debora Gerstenberger and Markus Müller: thank you for your support during this time. I couldn’t have asked for better supervisors. I appreciate every second of your time as well as everything you have done for me and this project throughout these four years. Debora you are an extraordinary human being. I also want to thank Dr. Teresa Orozco for the always kind and amazing help you have given me during this time. Thanks Dr. Rocio Vera for the advice you gave me throughout my studies and your support as a friend. To all my friends in Germany and Ecuador I want to thank for their support, time, company and loyalty. Having you in my life gave me strength and the energy to continue every day. I love you. Finally thank you to my family: Sister, mom, uncle and aunt. Ñaña without you I would not have made it. Thank God you exist. Mom you are my rock and my best friend. Thank you for all your sacrifices, I love you so much. Uncle Abel and aunt Margoth I know you trust me and my capabilities and you have shown me this with the wonderful gestures you have made to me during my studies. I adore you. I also want to thank all the people and institutions that helped my during my fieldwork and with my research: The National Secre- tary of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation of Ecuador, Ministries of Interior and Justice of Ecuador, Brenda Bucheli and former heads of Ecuadorian female prisons, Institute for Latin American Studies of Free University Berlin, Katholischer Akademischer Ausländer-Dienst, Prof. Dr. Mimi Ajzendstadt, Javier, Richard, Praschant, Daysi, María Luisa, Thzuska, Mayka, Nicole, David Williams, the 50 police officers who participated in this study... My final thanks is to the 51 women I interviewed for this re- search. Your testimonies and your willingness to share your experiences with me made this study possible. Thanks again for participating without asking anything in return. I shall always appreciate this. Table of Contents Chapter I ............................................................................................................................. 1 1.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................... 1 1.2 State of the art ......................................................................................................... 11 1.2.1 Police deviance in Latin America: exploring negative interactions between citizens and the police ........................................................................................................................ 11 1.2.2 Police deviance in Ecuador.......................................................................................... 14 1.2.3 Police sexual misconduct (PSM) in the literature ....................................................... 22 1.2.4 The profile of the female offender ............................................................................... 25 1.2.5 Previous research on intersectional experiences, minorities and the police ................ 29 1.2.6 Women who violate normative sex-roles and their treatment by the police ............... 30 Chapter II .......................................................................................................................... 32 2.1 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................... 32 2.1.1The Routine Activities Theory (RAT) framework ....................................................... 32 2.1.2 Working with the concept of Police Deviance ............................................................ 36 2.1.3 Selecting the proper conceptualization of Police Sexual Misconduct ......................... 41 2.1.4 Intersectionality and Police Stereotyped Views of Minorities .................................... 44 2.2 Methods ................................................................................................................... 47 2.2.1 Experiences and challenges of the interviewing process during fieldwork................. 52 2.2.2 Participants .................................................................................................................. 56 Chapter III ......................................................................................................................... 58 3.1 Findings ...................................................................................................................... 58 3.1.1 Female offenders’ victimisation by the police in Ecuador: Exploring the pre- requisites for the occurrence of police criminal and corruptive behaviour ................... 58 3.2 A Suitable target ...................................................................................................... 64 3.2.1 Examining female offenders’ capacity to resist police legal and illegal actions ......... 64 3.2.2 Exploring a hidden crime: police sexual misconduct and offenders’ victimisation .... 77 3.2.3 Police sexual misconduct in Ecuador during the 1980s and 1990s ............................. 78 3.2.4 Female inmates’ qualitative accounts of police sexual misconduct (1992-2010) ....... 82 3.2.5 Describing instances of police sexual misconduct in Ecuador: the views of police officers and female offenders ............................................................................................... 82 3.2.6 Less serious forms of police sexual misconduct ........................................................ 84 3.2.7 Serious-criminal forms of police sexual misconduct .................................................. 90 3.3 A likely ofender ...................................................................................................... 94 3.3.1 Tracing police’s motivations: Pressure for results and police officers search for individual, group or organizational gain .............................................................................. 94 3.3.2 Increasing crime rates in the region and in the country ............................................... 95 3.3.3 Dealing with the pressure of delivering results ......................................................... 100 3.3.4 Financial and moral incentives: The cases of three special police bodies................. 110 3.3.5 Corrupt cops: robbing and extorting offenders.......................................................... 118 3.4 The absence of capable guardians ......................................................................... 125 3.4.1 Tolerance through the Criminal Justice Pipeline ....................................................... 125 3.4.2 Years without a proper rights’ guardian: the case of the Public Defense Service..... 135 3.4.3 Fuero policial ............................................................................................................. 141 3.5 Bringing about a change in the police-female offenders interaction: altering the suitable targets and the capable guardians .................................................................. 145 3.5.1 Women changing from suitable targets to being a threat to police officers’ careers 145 3.5.2 Citizens as capable guardians .................................................................................... 165 3.6 Chapter discussion and conclusions ............................................................................. 173 Chapter IV ....................................................................................................................... 179 4.1 Intersectional Identities of minority offenders and experiences with deviant police officers ............................................................................................................................ 179 4.1.1 A review of the situation of refugees and immigrants of Colombian origin...... 181 4.1.2 Negative stereotypes, the media and the stigmatization of Colombians ................... 186 4.2 Intersectionality and minority-women accounts of police deviant behaviour ...... 190 4.2.1 The interactions between Colombian immigrant and refugee women with the police. ............................................................................................................................................ 190 4.2.2 Black women and their interactions with the police.................................................. 197 4.3 Common Stereotypes among Police Officers. Exploring an additional potential motivator for likely offenders ..................................................................................... 200 4.3.1 Police officers views of Afro descendant women. .................................................... 201 4.3.2 Exploring police