Police use of Deadly Force in Democracies: the Philippines and Brazil
Final Report Abstract
This project examined the paradox of democratic states employing excessive force against their own citizens, focusing on subnational variation in police use of deadly force. It studied two high-violence countries (the Philippines and Brazil) that shifted toward hardline policing after new presidents took office in 2016, leading to a sharp rise in deadly police violence. In the Philippines, this followed Rodrigo Duterte’s election. In Brazil, it began under Michel Temer and continued under Jair Bolsonaro (2019–2022). The theoretical framework draws on research on penal populism, which links public opinion to punitive state policies. Unlike Global North contexts where this remains within legal limits, the project explored settings where national leaders informally encouraged extralegal violence by security forces. A key focus was on subnational executives, state governors in Brazil and provincial governors or mayors in the Philippines, and how they responded to national punitive signals: aligning with them, resisting them, or adapting based on local perceptions of public demand for tougher policing. The institutional embedding of law enforcement—specifically, the degree of civilian oversight and protection from political interference— was analyzed as an intervening factor shaping elite influence over security governance. Using comparative case studies and mixed methods, the project mapped subnational policing practices before and during hardline leadership. It analyzed changes in deadly force alongside structural factors like poverty, inequality, urbanization, and crime and integrated qualitative interviews with political and police actors to assess subnational elite impact on local police use of deadly force. By investigating subnational dynamics in democracies where institutions failed to restrain violence, the project contributes to closing critical research gaps. It particularly improves our understanding of how democratic competition, political incentives and institutional design shape coercive practices in democratic contexts.
Link to the final report
https://nbn-resolving.org/urn:nbn:de:0168-ssoar-107334-2
Publications
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"If You Can't Beat Them, Kill Them". Fatal Violence Against Politicians in the Philippines, PRIF Report, 2, Frankfurt/M. ISBN: 978-3-946459-63-7.
Kreuzer, Peter
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Eine gewaltträchtige Ordnung. Gezielte Tötung als Mittel des „demokratischen“ Wettstreits in den Philippinen, PRIF Spotlight, 12, Frankfurt/M.
Kreuzer, Peter
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Elections in the Philippines: A Vote for Continuity?, PRIF Blog.
Kreuzer, Peter
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Impunity and Police Vigilantism. Is the highly excessive use of deadly force by the police in the Philippines now over?. PRIF Spotlight, 6, Frankfurt/M
Kreuzer, Peter
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Killing Politicians in the Philippines: Who, Where, When, and Why. PRIF Report, 2, Frankfurt/M.
Kreuzer, Peter
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Police Lethality in Brazil. Presentation at: 22nd Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Málaga, September 22.
Natal, Ariadne
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Determinants of police lethality in Brazil. At: ISA World Congress of Sociology, XX, Melbourne, June 28.
Natal, Ariadne
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Failing in Control. Legislative weakness in the face of a strongman president in the Philippines. PRIF Spotlight, 9, Frankfurt/M.
Kreuzer, Peter
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Police use of deadly force in Brazil and the Philippines: What macro-level factors tell us. PRIF Report, 4, Frankfurt/M.
Kreuzer, Peter & Natal, Ariadne
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Rodrigo Duterte: The Legacy of a Widely Popular Strongman President. PRIF Report, 7, Frankfurt/M.
Kreuzer, Peter
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Violence in Political Competition in the Philippines: The 2023 Barangay Elections in Perspective, PRIF Blog
Kreuzer, Peter
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A sombra do escudo: o alto custo humano da segurança em São Paulo
Natal, Ariadne
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Argos seletivo: contradições na implementação de tecnologias de monitoramento em São Paulo
Natal, Ariadne
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Dynamics of Police Lethality in Brazil: Patterns and Influences. Research Colloquium on Police Violence, TraCe, Marburg, January 26.
Natal, Ariadne
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Marques de Jesus. Policing under hardline: a case study of lethal operations in São Paulo’s coastal region. Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Bucharest, September 12.
Natal, Ariadne & Maria Gorete
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Operações Escudo e Verão: estratégias questionáveis na Baixada Santista.
Natal, Ariadne
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Police Use of Deadly Force in the Philippines: The Role of Mayors in a War on Drugs. Annual Conference of the European Society of Criminology, Bucharest, September 13.
Kreuzer, Peter
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Politico-institutional Determinants of Police Excessive Use of Deadly Force: Comparing Brazil and the Philippines on the National and Subnational Levels. Presentation at: Trace Annual Conference, Gießen, November 1,
Kreuzer, Peter & Ariadne Natal
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Política da Morte: o rebranding de Tarcísio de Freitas.
Natal, Ariadne
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Reality da Irresponsabilidade: o trabalho policial não é show.
Natal, Ariadne
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Romper o ciclo ou manter a espiral de letalidade policial: o desafio do Governo Lula.
Natal, Ariadne
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The Challenge of De-Democratization: Dynamics, Causes and Countermeasures. Lecture in the context of the “Segunda Edição do Curso: Democracia e Combate à Desinformação”, Escola Superior da Advocacia-Geral da União (ESAGU), Brasília, Brazil, 21 November 2024, online.
Wolff, Jonas
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The Philippine National Police: Finally Putting Limits to Police Use of Deadly Force?, PRIF Blog
Kreuzer, Peter
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The Subnational Dynamics of Targeted, Lethal Violence against Social Activists in Democracies: The Case of the Brazilian Amazon. Workshop “Political Violence in Democracies”, University of Amsterdam, 5-6 February 2024.
Albarracín, Juan, Rodrigo Moura Karolczak & Jonas Wolff
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Violent Mandates: Presidential Power, Institutional Failure, and the Rise of Police Killings in Brazil and the Philippines. PRIF Report, 6, Frankfurt/M.
Natal, Ariadne & Kreuzer, Peter
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Challenging the Narrative of Self-Defense in Police Operations: Bulacan Province under Duterte’s War on Drugs. PRIF Working Paper 64, Frankfurt/M,
Kreuzer, Peter
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Guerra às drogas no banco dos réus: a prisão de Duterte e os paralelos com o Brasil.
Natal, Ariadne
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The Arrest of Rodrigo Duterte: A Turning Point for Justice and Accountability?, PRIF Blog.
Kreuzer, Peter
