Date of Award

Spring 5-1-2003

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

Department

Criminology & Criminal Justice

First Advisor

Robert Huckabee

Second Advisor

DeVere D. Woods Jr.

Third Advisor

David Skelton

Abstract

El Salvador, located in Central America, is a country that experienced a civil war during which its government fought for the prevalence of democracy and the rebel groups for a communist regime. The armed conflict ended in 1992 with a peace treaty signed by the two sides. After the end of the civil war, El Salvador was no longer a focus of international attention. As a result of the agreements reached in 1992, national security forces were abolished and a new national law enforcement agency was created: the National Civilian Police. Since the end of the civil war, El Salvador's main public safety problems are criminal activity and non-political violence. Little has been done to analyze the situation because of the lack of official statistics kept by the authorities. This thesis provides a content analysis and a photograph analysis of the two Salvadoran newspapers regarding stories about El Salvador's organized crime, police misconduct and police leadership to determine: (1) ifthere is a general tendency to portray the PNC in a favourable or unfavourable manner, and (2) if the unfavorable portrayals obliged the PNC to better address those issues. The thesis also discusses the limitations and shortcomings of the improvements made by Salvadoran law enforcement as a consequence of any unfavorable portrayals by the media.

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