Justice in Mexico

Justice in Mexico Project Publications

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TBI-Assessing Judicial Reform

Views of Judges, Prosecutors, and Public Defenders
June 2011
By Matthew C. Ingram, Octavio Rodríguez Ferreira, and David A. Shirk

Assessing Judicial Reform in Mexico highlights the findings of a recent Justiciabarómetro survey of 276 judges, prosecutors, and public defenders working in Mexico’s criminal justice system from October to December 2010. This special report summarizes respondants’ attitudes regarding the workings of the Mexican criminal justice system, as well as the sweeping judicial reforms approved by Mexico’s Congress in 2008. The report finds that general support for the traditional Mexican legal system remains strong, and there is significant skepticism about recent judicial reforms. Despite the concerns the report finds that the provisions included in the 2008 reforms —introducing oral, adversarial criminal procedures— are generally well regarded, particularly in states where they have not yet taken effect. Many respondents are optimistic that these reforms will ultimately help to improve efficiency and reduce corruption in the judicial system.

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Justiciabarómetro: Survey of Judges, Prosecutors, and Public Defenders in Nine Mexican States

June 2011
By Matthew C. Ingram, Octavio Rodríguez Ferreira, and David A. Shirk

The Justiciabarómetro survey is a ground-breaking study of Mexican judges, prosecutors, and public defenders working in the country’s criminal justice system. The survey examines respondents’ demographic profile, professional background, and attitudes toward a wide variety of issues pertaining to the administration of justice in Mexico. This full report provides an overview of the survey’s findings on a range of questions, from gender and family status to professional bar membership and the efficacy of the criminal justice system. Above all, the study helps to identify areas of concern regarding recent efforts to reform the Mexican criminal justice system. The survey was conducted through the professional polling firm Data y Opinión Pública y Mercados (DATA-OPM), which made over 2,800 telephone calls made from October to December 2010 to the 1,098 sitting judges, prosecutors, and public defenders identified in all nine states, achieving an overall response rate of 276 completed interviews (22.4%).

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Drug Violence in Mexico

Data and Analysis Through 2010
February 2011
By Viridiana Ríos and David A. Shirk

Since the 1990s, Mexico has experienced a persistent public security crisis involving high rates of violent crime and increased violence among organized crime syndicates involved in drug trafficking and other illicit activities. In recent years, this violence has become so severe that officials in Mexico and the United States have expressed uncertainty about the Mexican state’s ability to withstand the effects of this violence. Indeed, 2010 was the worst year on record for such violence, and was marked a sharp increase in politically targeted violence that included numerous assassinations and kidnappings of public officials.

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Judicial Reform in Mexico
Toward a New Criminal Justice System
May 2010
By Matthew C. Ingram and David A. Shirk

As stories of crime and violence play out in the headlines, Mexico is in the midst of a major transformation of its judicial sector. Behind the scenes, Mexico has been gradually implementing a series of reforms that advocates hope will dramatically improve public security and the administration of justice over the next decade. Together, these reforms touch virtually all aspects of the judicial sector, including police, prosecutors, public defenders, the courts, and the penitentiary system. Whether this effort to reform the criminal justice system will succeed may depend less on these procedural changes than on efforts to address other long-standing problems by shoring up traditionally weak and corrupt institutions. Corruption, especially in law enforcement agencies, has had a highly corrosive effect on Mexico’s judicial sector, since it contributes to illegality and impunity among both criminals and authorities. Moreover, general problems of socioeconomic inequality —which plague many judicial systems around the world, including the United States— are only partially addressed by the reforms. Thus, in the end, procedural reforms targeting the judicial sector are, at best, a long-term solution to the problems of crime and violence that have motivated them. Careful analysis is therefore needed to evaluate what judicial reformers hope to accomplish, and what can be achieved realistically in the near term future.

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Drug Violence in Mexico
Data and Analysis from 2001-2009
January 2010
By David A. Shirk

Mexico closed the decade with an unprecedented level of violence, and a record number of drug-related killings in 2009. In light of the spectacular nature of this violence and the challenge it represents for the Mexican state, it raises serious concerns for the Mexican public, for policy makers, and for Mexico’s neighboring countries. This report provides an overview of the trends found in available data on drug-related killings in Mexico, and offers some brief observations about the causes of violence and the effectiveness of recent efforts to combat organized crime.

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Justiciabarómetro: Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara (in Spanish)
by Editors Marcos Pablo Moloeznik, Maria Eugenia Suárez de Garay, and David A. Shirk
December 2009

In December, the Justice in Mexico Project released the results of a groundbreaking survey titled Justiciabarómetro: Zona Metropolitana de Guadalajara, which was developed in collaboration with the Center for Innovation and Governance at the University of Guadalajara (UdG) and the Western Technical Institute for Higher Learning (ITESO). The survey was implemented by the polling firm Data Opinión Pública y Mercados (DATA-OPM), and represents the largest independent study of a police force ever published in Mexico.  Due to its magnitude, breadth of inquiry, and high level of participation, this study makes a noteworthy contribution to the study of public security issues in Mexico.

To read more about the Justiciabarometro report, please click here.