Criminalization of Poverty: Police Surveillance in Impoverished Urban Areas
Criminalización de la pobreza: vigilancia policial en zonas urbanas empobrecidas
Keywords:
Criminalization of poverty, Police surveillance, Informal settlements, Ethnography, Urban inequalityAbstract
This ethnographic study examines the pervasive police surveillance and profiling practices targeting impoverished urban neighborhoods, focusing on informal settlements. Moving beyond statistical crime analysis, the research highlights how law enforcement systematically criminalizes poverty by subjecting marginalized residents to excessive monitoring, harassment, and control. Through in-depth fieldwork and interviews with community members and police officers in Latin American cities, the study uncovers the social and spatial mechanisms that perpetuate exclusion and reinforce structural inequalities. The novelty of this research lies in its detailed ethnographic insight into the lived experiences of surveillance and its role in maintaining socio-spatial segregation. By exposing the everyday dynamics of criminalization, this article contributes to critical urban studies and debates on social justice, policing, and human rights in marginalized urban contexts.
Este estudio etnográfico examina las prácticas generalizadas de vigilancia y perfilamiento policial en barrios urbanos empobrecidos, con énfasis en asentamientos informales. Más allá del análisis estadístico del delito, la investigación destaca cómo las fuerzas del orden criminalizan sistemáticamente la pobreza al someter a las comunidades marginadas a un monitoreo excesivo, acoso y control. A través de trabajo de campo profundo y entrevistas con residentes y policías en ciudades latinoamericanas, el estudio revela los mecanismos sociales y espaciales que perpetúan la exclusión y refuerzan las desigualdades estructurales. La originalidad de esta investigación radica en su detallado enfoque etnográfico sobre las experiencias vividas de vigilancia y su papel en el mantenimiento de la segregación socioespacial. Al exponer las dinámicas cotidianas de criminalización, el artículo contribuye a los estudios urbanos críticos y a los debates sobre justicia social, policial y derechos humanos en contextos urbanos marginalizados.
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