Mano suave

Frente a tanto bombo mediático en torno a la creciente ola de inseguridad (Abuelas de Punta del Este incluidas) vienen bien un poco de cordura y flema inglesas. El artículo Crime and politics: the velvet glove de The Economist presenta algunos ejemplos de "soft power" a la hora de encarar el tema. La clave es abordar los problemas con inteligencia y sensibilidad, buscando siempre involucrar a la comunidad local en un proceso de diálogo y en la gestión de las las propias políticas que se pretenden impulsar.

The debate about crime is often emotional. Voters want vengeance. Politicians oblige. Barack Obama supports the death penalty even though he believes it “does little to deter crime”. It is justified, he says, because it expresses “the full measure of [a community’s] outrage”. Such reasoning is widespread, but Mark Kleiman, the author of “When Brute Force Fails: How to Have Less Crime and Less Punishment”, argues that it is unwise. The only good reason to punish, he says, is to prevent crime, either by locking criminals up so they cannot reoffend, or by deterring others.