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Abstract
Cuba has long had one of the lowest crime rates in Latin America and in the Americas generally. Incidents of crime against women such as rape and domestic violence, for example, appear to be lower in Cuba than in the rest of Latin America and the United States. Community organizations in Cuba play a significant role in controlling criminal activity by generating and sustaining citizen participation, generating an understanding of the nature of community crime, and helping to form partnerships for community policing. Cuba has attempted to obtain citizen participation in order to resolve social problems, including crime, by instilling a sense of community among its citizens and providing them with the structure of mass organizations that mobilize people on local, regional, and national levels. Residents attribute Cuba’s relatively low crime rate to the sense of community created and maintained by such mass organizations. This article focuses on the role that mass organizations and especially Committees for the Defense of the Revolution play in the Cuban experience of community policing and justice.
Notes
[1] The other theories include differential illegitimate theory (Cloward & Ohlin, Citation1960) and social learning theory (Burgess & Akers, Citation1966), or relate to goal–means gap (Merton, Citation1938), heredity (Rowe & Osgood, Citation1984), physical characteristics (Glueck & Glueck, Citation1950), intelligence (Hirschi & Hindelang, Citation1977), and labeling (Schrag, Citation1971).
[2] In 1961 Fidel Castro sent teachers and students from urban areas into the countryside to teach residents of rural areas to read and write. As a result, the Cuban literacy rate is among the highest in the world. Mass organizations also took part in a number of social movements. For example, the Federation of Cuban Women provided training in the areas of public health and education and took the lead in organizing vaccination programs for children (Evenson, Citation2003; Quirk, Citation1995).
[3] The success of these local meetings in creating an atmosphere of community involvement is reflected in a 1990 survey in which 60.7% of respondents answered that they participated in the governance of the country, 26% answered that they somewhat participated, and only 13% responded that they did not participate at all (Roman, Citation2003).
[4] University students have long been a political force in Cuba. The Federation of University Students was founded in 1925.
[5] For example, over 99% of Cuban women aged 16 or over belong to the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC). The Federation has been very successful in advancing the interests of women in Cuban society. At the time of the Revolution in 1959, most Cuban women worked as housewives and were not employed outside of the home. Today, women make up over 66% of Cuba’s qualified workforce, 63% of university graduates, 70% of teachers and professors, 52% of medical doctors, 55% of district attorneys, and 49% of judges.
[6] The idea for the establishment of Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) arose in 1960 during a demonstration in front of the Musee de la Revolution. Fidel Castro was speaking when the sound of exploding bombs was heard. In order to defend against instances of sabotage by counterrevolutionary forces, Castro spontaneously called for the creation of revolutionary organizations in every block and community in Cuba. The first CDR was thereafter established on September 28, 1960.
[7] In neighborhoods with a greater population density, there may be more than one CDR unit per block. An apartment building may have its own CDR unit, and a high‐rise apartment building may have a separate unit for every two or three floors.
[8] Juan Jose Rabilero Fonseca, the National Coordinator of the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, estimates that there are approximately 18,000 units at the zone level, 169 at the municipal level, and 14 at the provincial level.
[9] In June 2005 the author attended a mass mobilization organized by the CDR that was focused on mosquito control. Block members spent the morning cutting down tall grass and emptying pools of water where mosquito larvae could develop. Although the effort was voluntary, the streets were full of residents working together to resolve a common problem.
[10] The modification of the new Criminal Code adopted in 1979 involved public discussions at CDR meetings and feedback to representatives (Evenson, Citation2003).
[11] In order to control criminal activity CDRs organize voluntary nighttime patrols in every neighborhood. Residents patrol in teams of two, and shifts are from 11:00 p.m. until 2:00 a.m. and from 2:00 a.m. until 5:00 a.m.
[12] In coastal communities, CDR members also watch for drug drops by sea or for drugs washing up on shore. For example, in May 2005 CDR members intercepted 10 boxes of drugs on Cuba’s coastline, eight boxes in the province of Santiago, and one box each in the provinces of Holguin and Pinar del Rio (Interview with Juan Jose Rabilero Fenseca).
[13] CDR members may visit prisoners in jail, meet with their families, and make plans for their return to society. One member told of the local CDR obtaining a job in a bakery for someone about to be released from prison, thereby minimizing the risk of recidivism.
[14] One CDR member described the process to the author. She invites the subject to her home for coffee and during the ensuing conversation breaches the subject of concern. If the problem continues, she passes the case on to the CDR at the zone level, where the same procedure is followed. If there is still no change in conduct, the case is referred to the municipal level. It is rare that the problem behavior is not resolved by this time. However, if the problem persists, then the matter is referred to the police.