Quality of government, crime victimization and particularistic political participation in Latin America

Studies about the effects of victimization on political participation have focused on civic, partisan, and electoral participation, but have ignored particularistic forms of participation. In contexts of low impartiality and high corruption of State institutions, victims have incentives to resort to direct contact with public officials to access justice and social services. This article rests on the analysis of data from national surveys collected in 2012 in eighteen countries of Latin America by the Americas Barometer. The analyses show a positive relationship between victimization and particularistic political participation and that this relationship is moderated by the impartiality of the State institutions.