Mexico's unrule of law : implementing human rights in police and judicial reform under democratization /

In this book, Dutch scholar Uildriks (Institute for Safety and Security and Crisis Management, Netherlands) analyzes the various overwhelmingly unsuccessful attempts to reform the police and criminal justice systems and thus improve human rights in Mexico since its democratization in 2000. The specific focus is on policing in Mexico City, and the main contribution of the book is a survey of and interviews with police there. One key change since democratization is that the population is less fearful of the police. However, the broad policing problems of human rights abuses, pervasive and hierarchical corruption, and lack of horizontal oversight by other government agencies remain. More broadly, Mexico lacks a truly democratic political culture in which laws and state actors are seen as legitimate and deserving of being followed. Uildriks proposes further reforms in the areas of internal police structures (e.g., appointments, training, promotion, and discipline) and decentralization, including community policing. The key goal is to increase police accountability and public trust. The book is fairly narrowly focused; students interested in the broader problems with the rule of law and political culture in Mexico would do better to begin with other works. Indeed, these are often cited herein. Summing Up: Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates, graduates, and above. A. Siaroff University of Lethbridge