This dissertation analyzes the associations between crime and political behavior in Latin America. Chapter 1 performs a causal mediation analysis of the effect of fear of crime on support for democracy, testing if satisfaction with democracy mediates the association between fear and support. Chapter 2 examines the relations betwixt fear of crime and two different dimensions of punitiveness – support for harsher punishments for criminals and approval of the death penalty. Chapter 3 investigates the effect of crime victimization on support for vigilantism. It also studies whether trust in the justice system mediates the association between crime victimization and support for vigilantism. The dissertation reaches a few conclusions. First, individuals who are more fearful of crime are less satisfied with democracy and, because of it, decrease their support for the regime. Second, persons who exhibit higher fear of crime are more supportive of harsher sentences and the death penalty. Third, the association between fear and support for harsher sentences is stronger among low trust individuals and weaker among high trust ones. Fourth, crime victims, overall, display more support for vigilantism than non-victims. Fifth, the effect of victimization on support for vigilantism is mediated by trust in the justice system, i.e., being a crime victim lowers confidence, enhancing support for vigilantism. This dissertation used data from the Latin American Public Opinion Project (Lapop) for different countries and years to achieve these results. It also applied multiple statistical techniques. Chapters 1 and 2 used fixed-effects models to analyze data from numerous Latin American countries simultaneously, with a causal mediation analysis in chapter 1. Chapter 3 also employed a causal mediation analysis, but using a novel approach, the regression-with-residuals (RWR), with observational data from Brazil.