Overview

How can democratic states produce systematic violence while preserving the appearance of legality? False Positives and the Falsified Constitutional State addresses one of the most troubling paradoxes of contemporary politics: the capacity of constitutional democracies to generate lethal violence while formally maintaining the rule of law. The book begins with the phenomenon known in Colombia as false positives-thousands of civilians killed by members of the security forces and later presented as combatants killed in battle. Rather than interpreting these events as isolated abuses or operational errors, Omar Eduardo Rojas Bolaños argues that they formed part of a structured apparatus of state crime. Through institutional incentives, bureaucratic procedures, and official narratives, violence was not only carried out but also measured, recorded, and legitimized as evidence of success in the war against insurgency. From this analysis emerges a powerful concept: the falsified constitutional state. In such contexts, constitutional norms remain formally intact, but their protective function is inverted. Law no longer restrains violence; it becomes one of the mechanisms through which violence is administered and justified. Drawing on critical criminology, political theory, and sociology of the state, the book places the Colombian case within a broader global pattern. Similar dynamics appear in security regimes across the world-from counterinsurgency operations to the war on drugs and targeted killings in contemporary conflicts. Combining theoretical innovation with empirical investigation, this work offers a compelling analysis of how modern states can produce, administer, and normalize violence while preserving the institutional appearance of democracy. False Positives and the Falsified Constitutional State is an essential contribution to debates on state crime, security policy, and the limits of constitutional democracy in the twenty-first century.

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