Alba Zaluar

Violence in Rio de Janeiro: styles of leisure, drug use, and trafficking

The aim of this paper is to understand the connections between poverty and drug traffic at retail level, approaching the devices that provoked economic, social, and political changes in poor neighbourhoods. Although one should bear in mind the historical background of the economic, social, and political changes in which violence and drug traffic thrive, the paper focuses on the data obtained in several field-work researches, mainly the last one done from 1997 to 2000. The latter compares data on crimes and social indicators, interpreting them in the light of the ethnographical material about the styles of drug use and trafficking in three different districts of Rio de Janeiro: Copacabana, in the richest zone of the city; Tijuca, in a predominantly middle-class area; Madureira, in a predominantly poor section. It describes how young favelados are attracted to the dangers and virility ethos of a certain style of drug dealing in which many lose their lives.

Democratização inacabada: fracasso da segurança pública

O artigo discute dois paradoxos e um enigma que se desenvolveram no pais durante as ultimas decadas: o processo de democratizacao iniciado em 1978, que foi acompanhado por aumento espetacular da criminalidade; uma nacao que foi construida pelos ideais da cordialidade e da conciliacao mudados recentemente para os mecanismos da vinganca pessoal e impulsos agressivos incontrolaveis, visto que nem o perdao nem a pacificacao foram discutidos publicamente no termino do regime militar. Por fim, o enigma de uma violencia brutal entre homens jovens que afetou muito pouco as mulheres e outras categorias de idade. Ao contrario dos conflitos etnicos que atingem a todos, no Brasil sao os homicidios cometidos entre homens jovens que cresceram varias vezes nos anos 1980 e 1990. A fim de compreender isso, sao utilizadas quatro dimensoes: o contexto internacional do trafico de drogas e de armas de fogo; a importância e os limites das explicacoes macrossociais sobre a criminalidade violenta que interage com os mecanismos transnacionais do crime organizado; a inercia institucional que explica a ineficacia do sistema de justica; os processos microssociais ou as formacoes subjetivas sobre a concepcao de masculinidade em suas relacoes com a exibicao de forca, dinheiro e armas de fogo.

Teoria da eficácia coletiva e violência: o paradoxo do subúrbio carioca

Recent victimization survey in Rio de Janeiro, a metropolis with high rates of violent crimes, shows paradoxically that the suburban dwellers, mostly poor, present lower proportions of mistrusting or not knowing neighbors, less than 20%. In the city, good sociability shows higher percentages in those areas where the poor live. The one with higher population density and the most ancient, linked to the popular culture manifestations and former working class movement, corresponds to the citys suburbs where are the most violent favelas. Why such positive sociability is greater in the suburbs that exhibit the higher proportions of victimization although they lack leisure spaces and good public services, especially of public security? How can one explain this paradox? Based on the debate about social capital, collective efficacy and the three social orders - private, parochial e public -, new interpretations on the high rate of criminality in Rio de Janeiro are suggested.

Homicídios e disputas territoriais nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the risk of homicide in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, taking into account the territorial disputes taking place in the city. METHODS The study is based on data on mortality from homicide in the city of Rio de Janeiro between 2006 and 2009. Risks in favelas and in surrounding areas were evaluated, as was the domination of armed groups and drug dealing. Geographic and ethnographic concepts and methods were employed, using participant observation, interviews and analysis of secondary data on health. RESULTS Within the favelas, mortality rates from homicide were equivalent to, or lower than, the rest of the city, although they were considerably higher in areas surrounding the favelas, especially in areas where there was conflict between armed rival gangs. CONCLUSIONS The presence of trafficking crews and turf war in strategic areas of the city increases homicide rates and promotes the “ecology of danger” in these areas.OBJECTIVE : To evaluate the risk of homicide in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, taking into account the territorial disputes taking place in the city. METHODS : The study is based on data on mortality from homicide in the city of Rio de Janeiro between 2006 and 2009. Risks in favelas and in surrounding areas were evaluated, as was the domination of armed groups and drug dealing. Geographic and ethnographic concepts and methods were employed, using participant observation, interviews and analysis of secondary data on health. RESULTS : Within the favelas, mortality rates from homicide were equivalent to, or lower than, the rest of the city, although they were considerably higher in areas surrounding the favelas, especially in areas where there was conflict between armed rival gangs. CONCLUSIONS : The presence of trafficking crews and turf war in strategic areas of the city increases homicide rates and promotes the “ecology of danger” in these areas.

Mortes prematuras e conflito armado pelo domínio das favelas no Rio de Janeiro

This article intends to go beyond the use of individual and aggregate socioeconomic variables related to poverty, incorporating factors referred to the urban space dimension, which is considered today part of the sociological explanation of crime. The ecological analysis of criminal offenses seeks to understand the complex nature of violence in order to identify factors influencing behavior, increasing or decreasing the risk of perpetrating violence or being victimized by it in the same or similar socioeconomic conditions. Since several indicators are barely measurable, ethnographic research becomes indispensable, what implies the necessary replacement of some concepts, in order to include embodied social practices (ethos) allowing for an articulation between the objective and the subjective, the macro and the micro. Aiming at tracing the complex processes that promote and consolidate such social practices, the research employed the method of extended cases, what made possible to link the local to other spheres of social life in an historical approach involving a plurality of sources. The mapping out of the different dominions in the favelas (militias, factions of the drug trafficking, and other groups) allowed the identification of conflict areas concentrated in the proximity of major highways, ports and airports, what shows a geopolitical configuration of the armed conflicts along the drug trafficking territories. Such outcome is highlighted by the high rate of homicides reported in official databases and in the perceptions of victimization revealed by surveys.

Juventude Violenta: Processos, Retrocessos e Novos Percursos*

There is a need to include dimensions other than poverty to explain the alarming increase in violent crime among young Brazilian males beginning in the late 1970s, the author highlights that poverty should not be taken as the (economic) determination of crime in a determinist approach by objectivist sociology that considers causality in a single direction, excluding subjectivity and indetermination. Working with the model of complexity, she reconstructs part of the larger debate on the rise in crime and violence in the city of Rio de Janeiro. She points to new theories that could shed light on the hottest issues in this debate, such as the theory of subjective formation in the warrior ethos (Norbert Elias), informalization (Cas Wouters), and the ecological theories focusing more on the idea of social disorganization, but seeking the vulnerabilities and inconsistencies in the socialization processes for youth in the family and neighborhoods, taking into account the various forms of neighborhood association, the governmental and nongovernmental organizations working in these neighborhoods, and the supply of public services to educate and serve young people.

Violence, Easy Money, and Justice in Brazil: 1980–1995

The purpose of this article is to discuss the connections between drug trafficking and poverty, with particular reference to the various official institutional mechanisms that impact on these connections. It presents the findings of field research done in three districts of the city of Rio de Janeiro between 1998 and 2000 and an interpretation of the findings of a survey conducted on the functioning of the justice system in Campinas and Rio de Janeiro between 1993 and 1998 in respect of drug-related crime. The results are provided in the form of statistical data (compiled on the basis of investigations and judicial cases recorded in the Livro do Tombo of the various criminal courts), interpret-ations derived from reading 364 case files of trials in 1991 and the results of interviews given by judges, lawyers, public defenders, prosecutors, and prisoners in the two cities.

Sociability in crime. Culture, form of life or ethos?

This article discusses how primary social bonds, which constitute sociability, or the lifeworld, or day-to-day experience of what is taken for granted, are influenced, dominated or even colonized by economic and politico-institutional systems. It focuses on how the theory of transnational network-organized crime is important to understand the lives of the poorest young inhabitants of the favelas of Rio de Janeiro. It explores the politico-economic associations and cultural interpenetrations between professionalized crime and local politics; the connections between illegal and legal commerce, the transitions between deviance and the conventional world; the links between the economic system, with the power structure that accompanies illicit activity, and the lifeworld of small vendors, their families and neighbours.

Homicides and territorial struggles in Rio de Janeiro favelas

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the risk of homicide in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, taking into account the territorial disputes taking place in the city. METHODS The study is based on data on mortality from homicide in the city of Rio de Janeiro between 2006 and 2009. Risks in favelas and in surrounding areas were evaluated, as was the domination of armed groups and drug dealing. Geographic and ethnographic concepts and methods were employed, using participant observation, interviews and analysis of secondary data on health. RESULTS Within the favelas, mortality rates from homicide were equivalent to, or lower than, the rest of the city, although they were considerably higher in areas surrounding the favelas, especially in areas where there was conflict between armed rival gangs. CONCLUSIONS The presence of trafficking crews and turf war in strategic areas of the city increases homicide rates and promotes the “ecology of danger” in these areas.OBJECTIVE : To evaluate the risk of homicide in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, taking into account the territorial disputes taking place in the city. METHODS : The study is based on data on mortality from homicide in the city of Rio de Janeiro between 2006 and 2009. Risks in favelas and in surrounding areas were evaluated, as was the domination of armed groups and drug dealing. Geographic and ethnographic concepts and methods were employed, using participant observation, interviews and analysis of secondary data on health. RESULTS : Within the favelas, mortality rates from homicide were equivalent to, or lower than, the rest of the city, although they were considerably higher in areas surrounding the favelas, especially in areas where there was conflict between armed rival gangs. CONCLUSIONS : The presence of trafficking crews and turf war in strategic areas of the city increases homicide rates and promotes the “ecology of danger” in these areas.

Homicidios e disputas territoriales en las barriadas de Rio de Janeiro

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the risk of homicide in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, taking into account the territorial disputes taking place in the city. METHODS The study is based on data on mortality from homicide in the city of Rio de Janeiro between 2006 and 2009. Risks in favelas and in surrounding areas were evaluated, as was the domination of armed groups and drug dealing. Geographic and ethnographic concepts and methods were employed, using participant observation, interviews and analysis of secondary data on health. RESULTS Within the favelas, mortality rates from homicide were equivalent to, or lower than, the rest of the city, although they were considerably higher in areas surrounding the favelas, especially in areas where there was conflict between armed rival gangs. CONCLUSIONS The presence of trafficking crews and turf war in strategic areas of the city increases homicide rates and promotes the “ecology of danger” in these areas.OBJECTIVE : To evaluate the risk of homicide in Rio de Janeiro’s favelas, taking into account the territorial disputes taking place in the city. METHODS : The study is based on data on mortality from homicide in the city of Rio de Janeiro between 2006 and 2009. Risks in favelas and in surrounding areas were evaluated, as was the domination of armed groups and drug dealing. Geographic and ethnographic concepts and methods were employed, using participant observation, interviews and analysis of secondary data on health. RESULTS : Within the favelas, mortality rates from homicide were equivalent to, or lower than, the rest of the city, although they were considerably higher in areas surrounding the favelas, especially in areas where there was conflict between armed rival gangs. CONCLUSIONS : The presence of trafficking crews and turf war in strategic areas of the city increases homicide rates and promotes the “ecology of danger” in these areas.