Learning from crime: The case of the 'Tláhuac' lynching

The chapter presents some preliminary results of the analysis of the 'Tláhuac' lynching incident that occurred in Mexico City on 23 November 2004. The fatal lynching incident occurred when an angry mob burnt two police officers alive and seriously injured another after mistaking them for child kidnappers. The third policeman who was finally rescued by colleagues (almost four hours after the attack began) suffered serious injuries. The methodology for the analysis has been the application of the MORT (Management Over-sight Risk Three) model. The MORT may be regarded as a structured checklist in the form of a complex 'fault tree' that is intended to ensure that all aspects of an organization?s management are looked into when assessing the possible causes of an incident or accident. The model has been extensively used to analyse past failure of socio-technical systems such as, oil and gas industry, transport, etc. It may be argued that this is the first time that such an approach has been applied to the case of a failed social system. A number of causal factors leading to the incident have been highlighted by the technique. It is hoped that by conducting such analysis lessons can be learnt so that incidents such as the case of 'Tláhuac' can be prevented in the future.