DOI: 10.5064/f6h12zxf
title: Data for: The last mile problem: Activists, advocates and the struggle for justice in domestic courts

description: &lt;b&gt;Project Summary:&lt;/b&gt; Legal and human rights norms against violations of the right to physical integrity are clearly defined and established in all democracies. Implementing these well-established legal norms – traversing the “last mile” from written law to practice – has proved to be a tenacious problem, frustrating policymakers, scholars and citizens. What stands in the way of the successful protection of this right and the adjudication of those who commit acts of lethal violence? The article, which this data deposit supplements, examines the interactions between organized citizen groups, their allies and state investigators as a window into understanding the power relationships and mechanisms that produce both legal progress and inertia. I use original data to address one important part of the last mile problem: the judicial fate of cases of homicides and disappearances in domestic courts. Employing a least likely research design in two democracies struggling with high rates of lethal violence and impunity, Mexico and Colombia, I explore whether civil society actors are able to drive judicial progress in lower courts under these adverse circumstances.&lt;p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Data Abstract&lt;/b&gt;: To these ends, I present original data from Mexico and Colombia at the national, sub-national, organizational and individual level. Within each level of analysis, I ask why some cases of homicides and disappearances are investigated and enter the judicial pipeline while the majority languish. In order to test the hypothesis that cases that are the focus of NGOs and civil society groups’ organizing and advocacy efforts will be relatively more successful than average cases, I focus on NGOs that accept cases based on the category of the lethal violence (disappearance, homicide, enforced disappearance) rather than the individual merits of the case (strong evidence, sympathetic victim, potential for important legal precedent). This allows me to isolate the effects of their intervention at the case level. Triangulating among statistical evidence, semi-structured interviews, and ethnographic evidence, I find that cases that are the target of civil society action are more than twice as likely to show evidence of investigatory activity than the average case reported to the state. These civil society efforts are not sufficient, however, as most accompanied cases do not show significant judicial progress.&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;Survey:&lt;/b&gt; Who turns to NGOs or civil society organizations in times of life-threatening crisis? I addressed this question through a randomized person-to-person survey conducted in rural, urban and mixed areas throughout Mexico. The survey also ensured the interview respondents were balanced according to the level of violence in their state. The survey was administered by Buendía & Laredo, S.C., a statistical firm headquartered in Mexico. The survey employed a multistage area probability sample design, and was conducted between July 5th and 8th, 2012. Dr. Sandra Ley and Dr. Cassy L. Dorff were the lead researchers in designing the overall survey instrument.&lt;/p&gt;

I asked “if you were a victim of a crime in which your life was at risk, who would you notify?”  The respondents could rank three answers amongst seven possible responses: the police or the attorney general’s office; the church or religious community; an NGO or social leader in your community; a relative; a neighbor, a friend; or other. 111 of 1,000 respondents indicated that they would notify “an NGO or social leader in your community” first, second or third. Were these respondents different than the larger sample of respondents? Roughly the same number, 110 respondents, indicated that they would notify the church or religious community. While almost 80 percent, 787 respondents, indicated that they would go to the police at some point, only 38 percent indicated that they would to the police first.&lt;p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;&lt;b&gt;NGO Data:&lt;/b&gt; I worked with a Nuevo León-based NGO to construct a database of all cases of disappearances that they had received during a four-year period (2009-2012). I personally reviewed hand-written case files, recording all of the demographic information contained in these files. The omissions in this data file are because this information was not recorded at the time that the disappearance was recorded. This most likely resulted from the family member of the victim deciding not to share this information, though it could be because the person conducting the intake did not document the response to the questions.&lt;p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;I reviewed the case files for all those who had reported more than 1,000 cases of disappearances during this period whenever possible, and compared them to the individuals continually and actively involved in advocating for the 53 cases with the NGO. I used these data to answer the question: How were the victims’ relatives who chose to engage in ongoing advocacy demographically different from those who did not?&lt;/p&gt;

&lt;p&gt;While people who go to an NGO may be similar to the larger population, not everyone who reports their case to an NGO will end up benefitting from their advocacy. In both of the Mexican advocacy organizations I studied, cases only receive the benefits of advocacy if the family members who reported the case to the NGO are active and continuously participate in advocacy activities. In the case of the Nuevo León-based NGO, despite documenting more than 1,000 cases of disappearances and homicides, only 53 of these cases had been advocated for by the victims’ relatives as of 2013. If those participating with the NGO are demographically different from the cases that were registered by the NGO, this could introduce bias into the findings. These data help us gain leverage on this question.&lt;/p&gt;
description: Update Notes for Version 2.0
Version 2.0 is a QDR-administered technical update. Files have been reprocessed to improve digital accessibility; the content of materials remains unaltered.