Does Crime Breed Authoritarianism? Crime Exposure, Democratic Decoupling, and Political Attitudes in Brazil

How does crime influence democratic attitudes and behaviors?Existing research offers conflicting findings: some argue that crime fosters antidemocratic preferences, while others suggest it increases democratic engagement.To reconcile this paradox, we conceptualize democracy as a multifaceted system with distinct dimensions that can be decoupled.We differentiate between various (anti)democratic preferences tied to core democratic features and argue that contextual exposure to crime may bolster support for undemocratic enforcement measures without diminishing commitment to procedural democracy.To test this, we conducted a large online survey (N=3108) in Brazil, a country deeply affected by diverse forms of crime, using two embedded experimental protocols.Our findings show that crime exposure increases support for unlawful enforcement practices, such as police overreach and vigilante justice, while leaving attitudes toward military coups, executive aggrandizement, and support for democracy as the best form of government unaffected.Understanding the nuanced relationship between crime exposure and (anti)democratic attitudes, especially in contexts where crime is pervasive and exploited for political gain, is crucial for balancing public security with democratic stability.Finding that crime exposure leads people to tolerate breaches of the rule of law to combat crime and punish criminals is deeply concerning.Yet, our findings offer cautious optimism: support for undemocratic enforcement does not necessarily undermine commitment to other tenets of democracy.