vol. 50 núm. 1 (2008): enero - junio

This paper poses questions from an analysis of statistical series of criminal offenses against property in Colombia during recent decades and presents the distortive effects caused by reforms to criminal statute that create or eliminate penal types or vary legal classification of a penal conduct. This paper also analyzes the territorial distribution of offenses in changing demographic, institutional and socioeconomic scenarios from the second half of the 20th century; reviews the variation in the participation of offense against property within the total criminality rate in the country; and, finally, reflects upon the nature and intention of the reforms to criminal policy in the past and its effects on the security and functioning of justice in Colombia.

The concept of anomie belongs to psychological tradition and means a permanent state of normlessness. This concept, firstly introduced by Durkheim, was developed by North American psychology for studies on social control, deviance, offense and criminality. After being thoroughly studied, it took new turns in the 80’s, and some contemporary situations have taken it back to stage. Though considered a rather descriptive concept, it is useful to understand the nature of normative conflict situations the author refers to as “anomic space”.

To analyze the process by which crime has taken hold of its territory in the city as a factor associated with criminality, violence and the perception of security in space, it is necessary to start out with the concept of urban territory, conceived here as a space and a cultural product – the result of the process of ownership carried out by the individuals themselves. To such process there appear physical, linguistic and subjective aspects, condensing times and rites, signs and symbols, providing codes and meanings to the space that account for the reality being transcribed. If to this we add up the process of taking hold of the territory as a process of making the territory a property and a meaning, it is possible to see signals that condense realities, perceptions and attitudes before the space; they communicate the sense placed there by those inhabiting it. It is, then, the result of social representations, of the acknowledged and socialized, of that which makes reference to social practices of the territory through a non-verbal discourse. But if these representations generate feelings of insecurity, it is possible to identify the tracks that indicate the presence of a territory inhabited by crime; that is, a space inhabited and occupied by that generated fear, a marginal, deteriorated place, lacking social control and where delinquency takes shape. Fear in the city, then, is a social and cultural construction which, at its semantic level, generates marks and tracks that construct within the imaginary collective scenarios and representations with positive or negative connotations. In this case, a feeling of danger projected into space.

Homicide has been considered the most serious form of violent crime. Several criminological studies have been developed in order to explain crime rates and understand homicidal motivation. The current debate focuses on the analysis of the relationship between inequity, poverty and homicide rates. This analysis is based on social, sociological and structural explanations of the criminal behavior. This paper argues that the homicide crime rate has been one of the highest in Latin America due to the impact of illicit drug trafficking, criminal organizations and as a consequence of the history of violence in Colombia. An examination of the homicide crime rate during the past fifty years supports this viewpoint. Finally, this paper allows us to suggest some ideas about public policies.

This paper has been developed in two stages in the field of criminology with specific results and new understandings. The first stage collected detailed information about the criminal and contraventional frequency in 2007 as a result of a methodological process that included the applying of instruments to collect primary information; the assessing of data to be screened; the analysis of variable cross tabulation; and, data classification in frequency tables. The second stage is the materialization of a rigorous revision process of the outcomes of investigations carried out by the National Police resulting in yearly quantified data about offenses and contraventions from 1958 to 2007. This paper reviews, analyzes, systematizes and integrates such data so as to show their advances and development regarding the variables used by Center for Criminology’s data bases related to offenses and contraventions. As a result, historical data about these two elements were narrowed down, thus generating new knowledge as a primary source for those who should make decisions in the fields of criminal policy, security, investment, education and criminology.

The differences between statistical figures related to the crime phenomenon are important as not all records fit into an analytical way of thought, which leads to the search for a genesis of crime, of the characteristics of the criminal groups, of the circumstances leading to the punishable act and to the proposals for its control. When considering that it is a priority to make way for the need for information and to overcome some of the difficulties from primary sources in order to share common aspects with other institutions, the National Police starts, as of 1958, to manage the information and records of the infractions to the statutes and laws protecting the citizens’ co-existence and strengthen their security. In order to fortify the capacity to adapt and to influence the environs throughout the knowledge of the criminal reality, a history of personal experiences for over twenty years of work in the Direction of Criminal Investigation (DIJIN) is presented; that is why bibliographic references are scarce. In this publication, the desire to supersede academic goals to publish the Criminalidad magazine, a document with greater and higher projections, is described. And this is the reason for founding the Center for Criminological Research (CIC), which is created as an answer to the lack of exploration to have a path for the development of operational practices, and for the plans and programs to be implemented as a formal social answer to help lower crime. The article shows the chronological development of the Criminalidad magazine as an instrument to make known the Colombian crime statistics in the form of a yearbook, as well as the true summing up of CIC’s history and its achievements.  

The main purpose of this issue on “OFFENSES AND CONTRAVENTIONS AS FACTORS FOR CRIMINALITY AND PERTURBANCE OF SOCIAL CO-EXISTANCE,” is to show that “police contravention” is not a punishable conduct; its commission does not constitute penal or contravention-like background, nor is it a factor of criminality in Colombia; yet it does constitute disturbance of social co-existence. And some form of punishment must be applied to it different from the penal one, at the moment it is to be applied. Punishable behaviors have always been classified as offenses and contraventions, but in spite of the fact that it is known in the history of penal law, the doctrine of police-related crime, it has never been explicitly asserted that a police-related contravention is some sort of punishable behavior, reproachable under the substantive penal dogma; but that certain types of offenses, because of their low social impact, are known to the police authorities, through a special procedure and not by the judges of the republic. The police-related crime step by step has been giving way to penal contravention, and presently the latter has not only regained its dogmatic concept, but it has also become its natural judge, without the police authorities’ –through constitutional mandate (art. 29 and 116 of the Penal Code)—being able to impose penalties that imply deprivation of liberty nor formal accusations nor judged crimes, but only to know and to castigate police-related contraventions and impose non penal sanctions when the case may be. The penalty and the penal norm are instruments of penal law to fight delinquency and criminality within the boundaries of the social and democratic State of law. On the contrary, the non-penal sanctions and administrative coactions applied to police-related contraventions without their being a factor of criminality are instruments of the law for the police to fight facts perturbing social co-existence; and they are protected both by penal law as well as by the right of the police, mainly to meet the duties of the police.  

This paper attempts to establish a criminality index for Colombia integrating the major offenses in the country from 1994 to 2007. Though homicide is widely recognized and has been the most serious and homogeneous crime through time, there are other manifestations of violence and criminality that affect society profoundly. Hence, it is relevant to include such manifestations in the very same index in order to have a full spectrum of the behavior shown by security problems. After a revision of the instruments used in Colombia and worldwide to measure up criminality year after year, it is evident that there is no indicator for such a goal. Hence, the document presents three different - but closely related - methodological approaches to understand the development of criminality in the country based not only on homicide but on the pondered combination of various offenses. Using the punishment indicated for each offense in the Colombian Penal Code as a median measurer results in an interesting innovation as presented in this paper. This activity evidences some limitations concerning the source of information and the lack of a regional analysis. However, this analysis attempts to raise an interest in more and better approaches to the topic, thus strengthening the analysis of criminality data in Colombia and, therefore, designing public policies to face such an issue.

This paper both describes the evolution security has had in Colombia so far to achieve a Policy for the Consolidation of Democratic Security, and also the role the National Police has played in this process. Then, it highlights the key role the National Police has played throughout history in Colombia based on operative results in the past 50 years. These results have been recorded in the first section in charts containing data regarding apprehensions of general category; kidnapping results; drug holdings and seizures; and, illegal-crops eradication. Then, such results have been cross-tabulated at geographical and chronological (monthly) levels. In the second section, the results of such variables from 1959 to 2007 are narrowed down. Additionally, data regarding police officers killed or wounded while in action are included.

This paper aims to analyze the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), considered one of the main illegal armed organizations affecting democratic co-existence in Colombia. The presentation is centered on their transformation process since their inception in 1964 until they went from being an originally subversive structure, with legitimate revolutionary ideals and their desire to re-vindicate the oppressed ones, to compete now – like any criminal or delinquent gang – for territorial domains and control of narco-trafficking, their primary economic funding source. To structure this contents the research carried out in 2006 by the Center for Prospective Intelligence of the Direction of Police Intelligence called: “FARC as a subversive organization and profile of their middlerank commanders,” whose main purpose was to establish the socio-demographic characteristics of the middle ranks commanders integrating such a group. Through this reflection FARC are described, first of all, as to their origin and structural evolution. Then their main orientation guidelines are presented, as well as the conditions affecting their ideological continuity. Later on, an analysis of how the falling apart of their illegal structure has lead them to center on illicit activities, using –among others – international networks to reach their aims as set in their strategic plan geared towards taking over [legal] power. Lastly, a brief description of the criminal actions of this illegal armed group is made, and how they are framed within the present definition of a terrorist organization.

The article “Fight against human trafficking: A challenge for Colombia in the XXI Century” is a general approximation to the crime of human trafficking. In the last years this crime has become rather important in the international and national fields in view of the ratification of the United Nations’ Convention against Transnational Organized Delinquency and its Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Human Trafficking, Especially of Women and Children, as well as the implementation of Act 985 of 2005, which adjusted penal norms by creating a new penal type for human trafficking and an increase in penalties. There is still high lack of knowledge about this crime, which generates US$31.6 billion dollars in the form of forced labor, according to the ILO. This implies challenges for the Colombia state, not only before forced labor but also to face all the other modalities established by the law, considering that Colombia is a primary source for this crime. Because of this, the following issues were discussed in the text: in the first place, the history of the definition of human trafficking, followed by a reading of the penal type; the connection between organized crime and this crime; the main issues that have been proposed to prevent it, the research and investigation, and the taking the criminals before the justice; the achievements in the activities carried out; and finally, the goals and challenges in the future for the fight against human trafficking.

In spite of the persistent phenomena of violence, Colombia has been and continues being one of the most stable countries in economic and political and institutional terms in Latin America. Yet, to overcome violence is still one of its main challenges for it immediate future. After almost 40 years of fruitless efforts to recover internal security, the Colombian state has been able to structure and execute a consistent and solid policy of peace and security which now allows it to recover its sovereignty over its territory, to weaken illegal armed groups and to guarantee the free exercise of its citizens’ rights. This Democratic Security policy is based on the strengthening and modernization of its Military Forces and of the National Police; the adaptation of the laws to the requirements of security; the collaboration of the citizens with the authorities; the strengthening of the judicial power; and a wider institutional presence of the state in conflict zones. The demobilization of paramilitary groups has been an important advancement to recover security, and the beginning of talks with ELN could lead to their demobilization in the coming years. One of the most important and difficult challenges is to reach a peace agreement with FARC, which have been substantially weakened in the last years. Overcoming violence will give Colombia a vigorous push towards its economic and social development.

Traditional threats to international security do not come from nation-states any longer, but from nonstate actors who challenge the legitimacy and authority of the state. Thus, the most dangerous threat to international security is represented by organized crime and terrorism. Though organized crime is not a new phenomenon, new communication and information technologies have eased its operations and transformed it from a hierarchical organization into a “social network”. This criminal “network” has proved to be flexible, dynamic, elusive to initiatives by law enforcement authorities and adaptable to changes, challenging by far the fight against transnational organized crime.

The discovery of mass graves as a result of confessions made by perpetrators and victims´ stories under Peace and Justice Act 975, enacted in 2005 allows us to tell the history of social violence in Colombia from the view of pain the collective imaginarium provides through contributions made by Dijin’s [the National Police Investigation Direction] Justice and Peace Investigation Group, as a means of support for reflecting upon the construction of scenarios for reconciliation and forgiveness mainly among those communities affected by crimes against humanity.

After the fifty years the National Police has published criminality year-books, some people question the usefulness of the endeavor of the institution. In order to make an adequate judgment, it is mandatory to understand that Police statistics, being recorded criminality figures, are essentially geared to measure the efficacy of the institutional social reaction to criminality. Bearing such important task in mind, the Police should in the future contribute to the knowledge of real criminality, in conjunction with academy and with the backing of experts, by using qualitative and quantitative techniques to obtain trustworthy calculations regarding the so-called “black figure” of criminality. Among the qualitative techniques pointed out were the study of autobiographies of criminals; the confessions under promise of immunity; and participative observation. Among the quantitative techniques described were self-incriminating surveys and questionnaires to victims and family heads. Insofar as we are able to make a trustworthy estimation of real criminality, we will build a more solid criminal policy, and we could also achieve a better control of the social problem of criminality.