Costa Rican Patience at Its Worst
by Rod Hughes
Criminologists and social workers define recidivism as the repeated arrests or frequent incarceration for criminal acts. But how is this for recidivism?
Police arrested a Turrialba man this week, accused of having knifed to death an indigent, Luis Rubén Chacón, in San Jose’s Central Park. Authorities found that the suspect had a record of 399 prior arrests, reported the daily La Nación.
In a classic piece of Costa Rican understatement, the Judicial Investigator’s press office characterized the man as being a “problematic” person.