Crime and violence in Brazil: sociocultural representations in post-modernity

Abstract

This article aims at approaching some of the possible intersections between sociocultural representations of crime and violence in contemporary Brasil. In this sense, it is presented reflections about the spreading of collective fear, highlighting its relationship with socio-spatial segregation. Then, it analyzes the constitution of different sociabilities in segregated spaces, as an element that influences the representations that are collectively produced. Finally, it investigates some of the social responses to the generalization of fear, which are related to the production of discourses that are reactive to violence but are also often violent themselves. Thus, it intends to address aspects where contemporary criminal phenomena are interwoven in sociocultural manifestations – what is articulated by pointing to broader tendencies of the historical moment – represented by postmodernity – from the way they are expressed in the Brazilian context.