Lessons From A Study Of Violence In Brazil

Lessons From A Study Of Violence In Brazil Presented by: Dr. Cavalcanti Date: March 9, 2022 Postcolonial & Decolonial Thinking - Gonzalez (2020 [1988]) - Nascimento (2021 [1978]; 2021 [1980]) - Said (1978) Orientalism. - Mignolo (2002; 2004; 2014; 2018). - Quijano (2007). - Lugones (2010). - Jazeel (2019). - Rodney (1972). - Spivak (1990). - Bhambra (2014). Theoretical Paradigm - Democratizing and decolonizing methods, concepts and theories - (Carrington et al 2018: 12) • "Southern criminology is a democratizing epistemology that challenges the power imbalances which have privileged knowledges produced in the metropolitan centers of the global North" Colonialism And Imperialism - Social scientific knowledge, its categories and concepts were crucially shaped by the imperial context; they 'embodied an intellectual response to the colonised world' (Connell 2007: 9). - Unequal power relations emerging from the colonial project are most stark in settler colonial societies. - Independence did not deliver sovereignty into the hands of Indigenous or Afrodescendent populations but into those of their white populations, with Afrodescendants and Indigenous populations being continuously exploited and marginalized (Tuck and Yang 2021; Souza 2019). 'Escape goats' And Imperialism - (Fanon 1986 [1952]) • "Sartre said: Here it is the Jew, somewhere else it is the Negro. What is essential is a scapegoat. Baruk says nothing different: "Release from bate complexes will be accomplished only if mankind learns to renounce the scapegoat complex."" 'Pact For Life' - Marketing and the foundations of Eduardo Campos' political campaign. - Implementation of managerial reforms - social crime prevention measures initially proposed were not implemented - emulation of the New York 'miracle' & COMPSTAT. - Territorializations of police work, target monitoring, promise of bonus if targets are met (e.g. drugs & firearms apprehensions, reduction of homicides). - Focus on homicides and neglect of other forms of violence (rape, non- lethal violence, gender violence). - (Cunneen 2019: 29) • "Broader political changes particularly associated with the influence of neoliberalism on social policy have exacerbated the problem of institutional racism and redefined and reinforced the link between welfare and criminalization. • Indeed, social welfare has come to be informed by the same values and philosophies as criminal justice: deterrence, surveillance, stigma and graduated sanctions or punishments. • How might we understand broader shifts in the public policy environment (neoliberalist), to what extent do they reflect and reproduce institutional racism, and how do they bleed into increased criminalization?" Entrenching Neoliberalisation - (Interview with chief of civil police, 24th September 2013 - in Cavalcanti 2020: pg. 76) • 'We began to concentrate on management by results, and we began to have management indicators. In the past, to reach a higher rank in the police one would need around 18 years of experience. But in the new model what mattered were results, so this gave young officers an opportunity and they embraced the changes. [...] This is a change in culture. Before 2007 you had no targets, you worked if you felt like it. [...] In 2009, the bonus system was created, so officers had an incentive to hit targets, for seizing firearms and/or crack cocaine, for example. The culture of private businesses is now implemented inside a public institution the police.' Pernambuco's Prison Population 2005-2012 - Source: Ministério da Justiça (2015) Total Incarcerated Population 17,423 15,778 18,836 19,808 21,041 23,925 25,850 28,769 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 Prisoners Awaiting Trial Prison Spaces 9,437 5,954 10,508 11,243 12,349 13,737 15,177 18,003 8,198 8,256 8,298 9,562 9,675 10,135 10,567 11,478 Prison Population/100,000 Inhabitants 220.03 185.57 221.53 226.79 238.82 271.56 293.88 327.07 Police Violence - 'They [the police] don't arrive chatting; it is all done on the base of violence. I watched them stop a group of four guys the other day and ask for their ID cards. The boys didn't have their IDs. The police ordered them to put their hands on their heads. One guy was a bit slow so the officer gave him a bufetada [a slap] that sent him into a wall and then to the ground. It is better to trust a thief than the police. One side is insecurity, the other is fear' (Estrela, 17 years old, 29th October 2013) – in Cavalcanti 2020: 103-104. Militarization And Mass-Incarceration - Political instability/corrupt interim government after impeachment of President Dilma. - Far-right Bolsonaro elected in 2018. - Ministers appointed for 2018 military hard liners. - Brazil's prison population - 3rd largest in the world. Ranking 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th Country US China Brazil India Russia Prison Pop 2,068,800 1,690,000 811,707 488,511 464,183