Impunity: the Silent Root of Insecurity in Mexico
The article discusses how impunity contributes to the pervasive insecurity affecting Mexico's economy, particularly impacting small businesses and everyday economic activities.
The article highlights that insecurity is often quantified through crime statistics, but its most profound impact is rarely reported: the continuous erosion of the actual economy. It emphasizes that this is not about abstract indicators or macroeconomic projections, but rather the daily activities that sustain the country, such as small shops, service providers, workshops, and family businesses. The text explains that for decades, thinkers have agreed that societies do not collapse solely due to crime, but rather due to the lack of consequences for criminal actions.
The piece references Cesare Beccaria's historical observation that the vital issue is not the severity of punishment, but the certainty of its application. When the certainty of justice is absent, impunity fosters a perverse incentive where crime becomes a low-risk activity rather than an exception. The narrative carries the firm assertion that in Mexico, empirical evidence supports this claim, focusing particularly on the concept of the 'dark figure' of crimeβreferring to crimes that are never reported or prosecuted.