Does crime breed authoritarianism? Crime exposure, democratic decoupling and political attitudes in Brazil
December 15th, 2025
The article “Does crime breed authoritarianism? Crime exposure, democratic decoupling and political attitudes in Brazil”, published in 2025 in the Journal of Peace Research by Juan Masullo, Krzysztof Krakowski, and Davide Morisi, aims to analyze the influence of crime on democratic behavior.
Based on an online survey collecting the opinions of 3,108 participants, the authors show that exposure to contexts characterized by high levels of crime, often politically instrumentalized – as exemplified by Brazil – can increase tolerance for non-democratic practices that violate the rule of law (e.g., abuses of power by law enforcement agents), without reducing overall support for democracy, as reflected in attitudes toward a military coup or the centralization of executive power.
The article can be read and downloaded at this link.