Gender Policing in Latin American Societies

Latin American policing is among the most conflictive and low quality government services in the continent. In particular, policing street people and particularly young people is an area with great opportunities of improvement. This paper compares ways of policing in five countries in L.A. Argentina, Brasil, Colombia, Guatemala and México, Will make an effort to show the more problematic areas of the relations between police and the youth. I will also make a strong content analysis of gender bias policing in this countries. The paper will draw from a set of individual and group interviews in ten cities of the countries marked. I will describe the different types of verbal and physical encounters between police and young women, evaluate the quality of the encounter and make an interpretation on how gender is define and or exercise trough this encounters.