| Abstract |
The world’s population and citizen’s lives are meanly concentrated in cities, so also the criminality is located there. Mass media influence this type of crimes and built a reality of urban delinquency.Legislators, the executive power and politicians reply not to real events, but to news as described by mass media, because this is what the public opinion is. The punitive power is characterized by the victim’s exploitation (expropriation, depersonalization).To resolve this situation, the central State has tried to care for victims’ psychic damages and so it has extended the concept of “victim” to all his family. All the guidelines shoot for the victim’s psychic health and his or her recovery, in particular the process of recovering from a loss. When this processing ends, the risk of tension’s amassing increases and it may turns into a psychic pathology.The mass media shows only a few victims, whereas the other one goes ignored (they became invisible). This victims become heroes. Journalists and performers instigate this victims to talk about their emotions and feelings like a criminologists or a criminal lawyer. These opinions are understood (and perceived) like a scientific truth by mass media’s insiders. The audience may identify itself with the victims if they have distinctive features (for example language, culture,…). Traumatized victims blame the government and their preventive and repressive ineffectiveness. Politics try to search for a solution about the reality “built” by mass media and victim/hero’s opinions, in fact this reality doesn’t coincide with the urban delinquency.The victim/hero ruin the legislation in South America, where in some countries (like Argentina and Brazil) there isn’t a criminal jurisdiction, but only inconsistent and contradictory lows. The concept of victim/hero needs more research, also by comparing different national experiences.This article speaks about the comparison between two different crimes (kidnapping) which happened in Argentina; they are similar because the crime’s feature and mass media manipulation, but they differ in stretch and political context. These two kidnappings caused the hostages’ death: the first, the Ayerza case, happened in 1932-1933, the second happened in 2004.The two episodes are similar because: 1) the victim was a young University student; 2) he comes from a family that had an high social position; 3) Right Wing political ideals; 4) mass media presence during the time; 5) the general demand for more authority repression; 6) a plan about a criminal jurisdiction reform; 7) the crimes’ perpetrators were punished; 8) the coincidence between crimes and economic crisis. The first crime, Ayerza, is about a kidnapping which happened on the 25 of October 1933. The body was found on the 21 of February 1933. In Argentina at the time there was a complex economic crisis and also a military dictatorship. The victim was a young University student, his family had an high social position and he was a member of the local fascist movement (Legión Cívica).The Conservative Government was accused of complicity, the people asked for more severe punishment, Legión Cívica’s militants asserted their selves, revenge was promised and the death penalty was requested. Two months later, criminals, that belonged to an Italian gang (Galiffi’s Gang), were arrested.The kidnappers’ political identity was known, so the victim’s political organization exalted nationalism and delivered speeches about foreign criminals.The executive power reacted by suggesting repressive reforms in Penal Code, but it never passed on because the Senate did not approved it.In 2004, the social and historical context and the consequences were different because of the “victim/hero phenomenon”. Besides, the political situation was dissimilar because there were free and fair elections.Mass media attention shifted when the body was found from the victim to his father who assumed the major role of the new victim.Father and son did not belong to a political party, this is an important difference in comparison with the other event. The father surrounded himself with consultants linked to the dictatorship in 1976-1983, or to the corrupt political control in 1989-1999.At the beginning, the victim/hero had an ample support, but little by little the attention stopped because mass media’s directors refused to help him; the victim/hero, also, made a lot of political mistakes. The political power did not present any reforms in Penal Code. The victim’s father suggested reforms to the Congress worked out by his collaborators. He received proposals by politicians to become a candidate, but during the time he disappeared.So, the victim/hero “construction” may destabilize democratic state institutions by introducing values contrary to solidarity, equality, freedom, democracy. The democratic institutions have lost their faculties of reaction and defence and they resigned their self to victim/hero’s threats. It is a new phenomenon that cause problems in criminal jurisdiction and in criminal policy, but it sacrifices victim’s mental health.Summarizing:- an handling made by victims through their role of heroes is increasing;- this handling could put in danger the State;- the communication causes a momentary relief for the victim, but it could provoke a new victimization.
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