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Building Social Democracy Through Transitional Justice: Lessons from Argentina (1983–2015)

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The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South

Abstract

Contributing to the growing body of scholarship about Southern criminology, this chapter examines the punishment of common crimes and crimes of the state together in a comprehensive approach. After summarizing three moments in the Argentine transition to democracy, the chapter will consider the role of the collective memory of human rights violations through court proceedings relating to common crime and punishment. It also highlights how the collective experience of state terror victims influenced the response to common crime through an emerging victims’ movement and by tackling state crimes that had previously gone unprosecuted. Finally, this chapter considers the impact of state crime trials on general punitiveness and informal societal reactions to crime.

Special thanks to Kerry Carrington, Russell Hogg and John Scott for their essential comments, suggestions and assistance for this version of the text. This chapter continues the line of inquire of Zysman Quirós (2017). This is also part of a research project at Universidad de Buenos Aires, UBACyT 20020150200141BA (2016–2017).

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Notes

  1. 1.

    The transition to democracy began in different years: Ecuador (1980), Bolivia (1982), Honduras (1982), Argentina (1983), Uruguay (1984), Brazil (1985), El Salvador (1984), Guatemala (1986), Haiti (1991), Paraguay (1989), Chile (1990), Panama (1990) and Peru (1980, 2000).

  2. 2.

    The concept of ‘dirty war’, widely used internationally since 1980s, or similar uses of the term ‘war’ or ‘civil war’ to characterize the violence during dictatorship, is questioned by political and human rights organizations and scholars who prefer to identify it as state terror, and not to speak of two sides with equal responsibility for violence in a civil war.

  3. 3.

    The CONADEP, in nine months of work, systematically documented at least 8961 disappearances. This number increased later with new reports. Human rights groups have claimed, since the mid-1970s, the number of ‘30,000 disappeared’. Discussions on this issue are not innocent, and even today, they are the subject of great political and historical tension that divides sides. Recently, human rights leaders expressed indignation regarding comments of current President Macri (2015) on the number of people disappeared during the dictatorship and the use of the concept of ‘dirty war’. Macri answered in an interview: ‘I don’t know. It’s a debate that I don’t want to enter into. If it was 9000 or 30,000…’.

  4. 4.

    ‘Nunca Más’ is still the main motto in human rights discourses. See Arquidiócesis de San Paulo: Brasil Nunca Más (1985); SERPAJ Uruguay, Nunca Más (1989); Comité de Iglesia para Ayudas de Emergencia, Paraguay Nunca Más (1990); Proyecto Interdiocesano de Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica, Guatemala: ‘Nunca Más’ (1996); ProyectoNunca Más; Colombia ‘Nunca Más’: crímenes de lesa humanidad (2000) and other commission reports (Crenzel 2008a: 193).

  5. 5.

    12.31.2015.

  6. 6.

    Despite the criminological importance, a significant number of judgments are not finalized as convicted have the right to appeal to the National Supreme Court.

  7. 7.

    It is alleged that between 1983 and 2015, there were 4644 cases of deaths from police abuse by cases of ‘gatillo fáci’ (in English, trigger-happy) and deaths in police stations (See Coordinadora Contra la Represión Policial e Institucional [Coordinator against Police and Institutional Repression] 2015).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Faculty of Law, University of Buenos Aires, Buenos Aires, Argentina

    Diego Zysman Quirós

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  1. Diego Zysman Quirós
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  1. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Kerry Carrington

  2. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    Russell Hogg

  3. Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, QLD, Australia

    John Scott

  4. National University of Litoral Santa Fe, Santa Fe, Argentina

    Máximo Sozzo

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Zysman Quirós, D. (2018). Building Social Democracy Through Transitional Justice: Lessons from Argentina (1983–2015). In: Carrington, K., Hogg, R., Scott, J., Sozzo, M. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Criminology and the Global South. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-65021-0_48

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