A team of researchers led by Brown University's Rob Blair studied a military intervention in Cali, Colombia, and found little evidence to support the idea that military policing reduces crime.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] - The debate around deploying armed forces for domestic policing operations in high-crime areas is often framed as a tradeoff between preserving public safety and maintaining civil liberties. Proponents argue that military policing reduces crime, while detractors claim it leads to more human rights abuses.
There's been little rigorous research on the topic to support either side - until now.
A research team led by Rob Blair, an associate professor of political science within the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University, analyzed the results of a military intervention in Cali, Colombia, and found little to no evidence that the intervention improved public safety - or that it led to an increase in human rights abuses.
The study, published in Nature Human Behaviour, calls into question the benefits of military policing and suggests such interventions may not be worth the costs.
"We didn't see any reduction in crime," Blair said. "If anything, we saw an increase in crime after the intervention was over. That was quite surprising. I thought - whatever the effects on human rights or citizen attitudes toward the military - we would see evidence of crime reduction. But we didn't."
