Legados autoritários e reformas policiais

Abstract

This dissertation aims to identify how academic literature has addressed police reform processes in Latin America, focusing on the advances, limitations, and contextual factors shaping institutional transformations across different countries. A systematic literature review was conducted using the PRISMA 2020 protocol, selecting and analyzing studies that explore reform initiatives in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Colombia, and Peru. The research seeks to systematize the analytical categories, methodological approaches, core concepts, and main findings reported in the selected works. The analysis reveals that, although several reform efforts are inspired by democratic principles such as citizen security, accountability, and human rights, these transformations are frequently constrained by authoritarian legacies, militarized policing practices, institutional resistance, and fragmented public policies. Curricular reforms in police academies, the creation of social control mechanisms, and the introduction of horizontal governance practices appear as significant developments, yet often with limited practical impact. The studies reviewed show that the success of reform initiatives is highly conditioned by contextual variables, such as federal arrangements, police autonomy, political and social pressure, and the role of local bureaucracies. The dissertation concludes that police reform processes in the region involve complex institutional arrangements, which vary according to the interaction between historical legacies, political dynamics, and multi-level governance structures. The consolidation of more democratic security models depends on the articulation of legal, operational, and cultural changes, driven by context-sensitive strategies that adapt to local specificities.