'New violence': Silencing women's experiences in the Favelas of Brazil

Journal of Latin American Studies

Volumn 42, Issue 4, 2010, Pages 719-747

  Wilding, Polly ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF LEEDS   (United Kingdom)

Author keywords

domestic violence; gangs; gender; new violence; police; security; urban violence

Indexed keywords

GENDER ISSUE; POLICE FORCE; SOCIAL SECURITY; URBAN SOCIETY; VIOLENCE; WOMENS STATUS;

BRAZIL; LATIN AMERICA;

EID: 79957498910     PISSN: 0022216X     EISSN: 1469767X     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1017/S0022216X10001343     Document Type: Article

References (156)

1. Ignacio Cano and Nilton Santos, Violência letal, renda e desigualdade no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 2001);
2. Martha Huggins, 'Legacies of Authoritarianism: Brazilian Torturers' and Murderers' Reformulation of Memory', Latin American Perspectives, vol. 27, no. 2(2000), pp. 57-78; (Pubitemid 30232039)
3. Jailson de Souza e Silva, Raquel Willadino Braga, Fabio da Silva Rodrigues, Fernando Lannes Fernandes and Elionalva Sousa Silva, Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens na rede do tráfico de drogas no varejo do Rio de Janeiro, 2004-2006:
4. sumário executivo (Rio de Janeiro, 2006);
5. Alba Zaluar, 'Urban Violence and Drug Warfare in Brazil', in Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt (eds.), Armed Actors: Organised Violence and State Failure in Latin America (London, 2004), pp. 139-53.
6. Juan Méndez, Paulo Pinheiro and Guillermo O'Donnell (eds.), The (Un) Rule of Law and the Underprivileged in Latin America (Notre Dame IN, 1999).
7. UN-HABITAT, Enhancing Urban Safety and Security: Global Report on Human Settlements 2007 (London, 2007);
8. Teresa Caldeira and James Holston, 'Democracy and Violence in Brazil', Comparative Studies in Society and History, vol. 41, no. 4(1999), p. 74.
9. Urban violence is increasingly represented in popular film and media, in which violent masculinities are pivotal in explaining the high levels of criminality and homicides.
10. See Tropa de elite (Elite Squad), directed by José Padilha y (2007);
11. Cidade de Deus (City of God), directed by Fernando Meirelles (2002);
12. and Notícias de uma guerra particular (News from a Personal War), directed by Kátia Lund and João Moreira Salles (1999). Much media interest hinges on the rising public fear of disaffected young men and the violence and disorder they are perceived to generate.
13. Much of this literature builds on earlier feminist work bringing private violence into public debate and establishing links between violence against women and political terror, exemplified by the slogan 'Democracia en el país y en la casa': see Alicia Frohmann and Teresa Valdés, Democracy in the Country and in the Home: The Women's Movement in Chile (FLACSO, Serie de Estudios Sociales no. 55, Santiago 1993).
14. Donny Meertens and Nora Segura-Escobar, 'Uprooted Lives: Gender, Violence and Displacement in Colombia', Singapore Journal of Tropical Geography, vol. 17, no. 2(1998), pp. 165-78.
15. Daniel Pécaut, 'From the Banality of Violence to Real Terror: The Case of Colombia', in Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt (eds.), Societies of Fear: The Legacy of Civil War, Violence and Terror in Latin America (London, 1999), pp. 141-67.
16. Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens;
17. Ailsa Winton, 'Youth, Gangs and Violence: Analysing the Social and Spatial Mobility of Young People in Guatemala City', Children's Geographies, vol. 3, no. 2(2005), pp. 167-84;
18. Alba Zaluar, 'The Paradoxes of Democratization and Violence in Brazil', UFRJ - International Conference Latin America, Brazil and the European Union Extended (Rio de Janeiro, 2004).
19. Dennis Rodgers, 'Living in the Shadow of Death: Gangs, Violence and Social Order in Urban Nicaragua, 1996-2002', Journal of Latin American Studies, vol. 38, no. 2(2006), pp. 267-92. (Pubitemid 44274707)
20. Jenny Pearce, 'Bringing Violence "Back Home": Gender Socialisation and the Transmission of Violence through Time and Space', in Helmut Anheier, Mary Kaldor and Marlies Glasius (eds.), Global Civil Society 2006/07 (London, 2006), pp. 62-80.
21. Mo Hume, The Politics of Violence: Gender, Conflict and Community in el Salvador (London, 2009).
22. Tatiana Moura, Rostos invisíveis da violencia armada: um estudo de caso sobre o Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 2007);
23. Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces: Women's Experiences of Urban Violence in Brazil (London, 2008);
24. Barbara Musumeci Soares and Iara Ilgenfritz, Prisioneiras: vida e violência atrás das grades (Rio de Janeiro, 2002).
25. See, for example, Caroline Moser and Fiona Clark (eds.), Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence (London, 2001);
26. Hume, The Politics of Violence;
27. and Moura, Rostos invisíveis.
28. Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes ejovens;
29. Guaracy Mingardi, Tiras, gansos e trutas: cotidiano e reforma na Polícia Civil (São Paulo, 1992);
30. Alba Zaluar, 'Crime, medo e polícia', Sociedade e Estado, vol. 10(1995), pp. 391-416;
31. Aline Boueri and Marina Lemle, 'O Rio entre traficantes e milícias', available at www.comunidadesegura.org/?q=pt/nod/31173;
32. Cano and Santos, Voléncia let al.
33. While homicide rates are a commonly used proxy for levels of violence, they skew data towards officially registered homicides; they do not include violent deaths not registered as homicides, or violence that does not result in death. Ignacio Cano ('Registros Criminais da Polícia no Rio de Janeiro: problemas de confiabilidade e validade', Fórum de debates criminalidade, violência e segurança pública no Brasil: uma discussão sobre as bases de dados e questões metodológicas, Rio de Janeiro, 2000) highlights further complexities caused by irregularities in Brazilian police data. Victimisation data in Brazil are scarce and localised.
34. Cynthia Cockburn, 'The Continuum of Violence: A Gender Perspective on War and Peace', in Wenona Giles and Jennifer Hyndman (eds.), Sites of Violence: Gender and Conflict Zones (Berkeley CA, 2004), pp. 24-44.
35. Kristin Valasek, 'Security Sector Reform and Gender', in Megan Bastick and Kristin Valasek (eds.), Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit (Geneva, 2008);
36. J. Ann Tickner, 'You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists', International Studies Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4(1997);
37. Paul Viotti and Mark Kauppi, International Relations Theory (London, 2010).
38. Gunhild Hoogensen and Svein Rottem, 'Gender Identity and the Subject of Security', Security Dialogue, vol. 35, no. 2(2004), p. 156.
39. Pearce, 'Bringing Violence "Back Home"'.
40. Roberto Briceño-León, 'Violence and the Right to Kill: Public Perceptions from Latin America', presented at the workshop Rising Violence and the Criminal Justice Response in Latin America: Towards an Agenda for Collaborative Research in the 21st Century, University of Texas, Austin TX (6-9 May 1999), available at http://lanic.utexas.edu/project/etext/violence/ memoria/session-1.html;
41. Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt (eds.), Fractured Cities: Social Exclusion, Urban Violence & Contested Spaces in Latin America (London, 2007);
42. Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Societies of Fear;
43. Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Armed Actors.
44. Charlotte Lemanski, 'A New Apartheid? The Spatial Implications of Fear of Crime in Cape Town, South Africa', Environment and Urbanization, vol. 16. no. 2(2004), pp. 101-12;
45. Colin Knox and Rachel Monaghan, 'Violence in a Changing Political Context: Northern Ireland and South Africa', in Elizabeth Stanko (ed.), Meanings of Violence (London, 2003), pp. 184-202.
46. Kees Koonings, 'Armed Actors, Violence and Democracy in Latin America in the 1990s', Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 20, no. 4(2001), p. 403.
47. Kees Koonings, 'Armed Actors, Violence and Democracy in Latin America in the 1990s', Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 20, no. 4(2001), p. 403.
48. Elizabeth Leeds, 'Rio de Janeiro', in Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Fractured Cities, pp. 23-35;
49. Méndez, Pinheiro and O'Donnell (eds.), The (Un) Rule of Law, p. 143.
50. Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Armed Actors;
51. Zaluar, 'The Paradoxes of Democratization and Violence'.
52. Hume, The Politics of Violence; Philippe Bourgois, The Power of Violence in War and Peace: Post-Cold War Lessons from el Salvador (Oxford, 2001).
53. Huggins, 'Legacies of Authoritarianism';
54. Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Societies of Fear;
55. Méndez, Pinheiro and O'Donnell (eds.), The (Un) Rule of Law.
56. Pearce, 'Bringing Violence "Back Home"';
57. Caroline Moser and Cathy McIlwaine, Encounters with Violence in Latin America (London, 2004);
58. Moura, Rostos invisíveis;
59. Melissa Wright, 'A Manifesto Against Femicide', Antipode, vol. 33, no. 3(2001), pp. 550-66.
60. The most recent volume by Koonings and Kruijt, Fractured Cities, does contain a chapter by Moser and McIlwaine with a section on gender ('Living in Fear: How the Urban Poor Perceive Violence, Fear and Insecurity'). However, this only serves to highlight the overall lack of attention to gender in this literature.
61. Mo Hume, 'The Myths of Violence: Gender, Community and Conflict in el Salvador', Latin American Perspectives, vol. 35, no. 5(2008), pp. 59-76.
62. Peter Benson, Edward Fischer and Kedron Thomas, 'Resocializing Suffering: Neoliberalism, Accusation, and the Sociopolitical Context of Guatemala's New Violence', Latin American Perspectives, vol. 35, no. 5(2008), pp. 38-58.
63. Jenny Pearce, 'Perverse state formation and securitised democracy in Latin America', Democratization, vol. 17, no. 2(2010), pp. 286-306.
64. Rodgers, 'Living in the Shadow of Death'.
65. Benson, Fischer and Thomas, 'Resocializing Suffering'.
66. David Levinson, Family Violence in Cross-Cultural Perspective (London, 1989);
67. R. Emerson Dobash and Russell Dobash, Violence Against Wives: A Case against the Patriarchy (New York, 1979).
68. As Diane Elson and Ruth Pearson have argued (in 'The Subordination of Women and the Internationalisation of Factory Production', in Kate Young, Carol Wolkowitz and Roslyn McCullagh (eds.), Of Marriage and the Market, London, 1981), gender relations can be intensified, decomposed or recomposed as the result of major economic change; the same analysis can also be applied to political change.
69. Brad Evans, 'The State of Violence', International Journal of Human Rights, vol. 11, no. 3(2007), p. 358;
70. Hume, 'The Myths of Violence', p. 61.
71. Caroline Moser, 'The Gendered Continuum of Violence and Conflict', in Moser and Clark (eds.), Victims, Perpetrators or Actors?, p. 49.
72. Margaret Schuler, Freedom from Violence: Women's Strategies from around the World (New York, 1992).
73. Hume, 'The Myths of Violence', p. 63.
74. Pearce, 'Bringing Violence "Back Home"'.
75. Jon Elliston and Catherine Lutz, 'Hidden Casualties: An Epidemic of Domestic Violence when Troops Return from War', Southern Exposure, vol. 31, no. 1 (Spring 2003).
76. Dallan Flake, 'Individual, Family, and Community Risk Markers for Domestic Violence in Peru', in Violence Against Women, vol. 11, no. 3(2005), pp. 353-73. (Pubitemid 40305915)
77. Jill Radford and Eve Hudson, 'Balls and Permissions: Theorising the Link between Football and Domestic Violence', in Tina Skinner, Marianne Hester and Ellen Malos (eds.), Researching Gender Violence: Feminist Methodology in Action (Abingdon, 2005), pp. 190-210.
78. Evans, 'The State of Violence', p. 351.
79. Célia Costa, Daniel Engelbrecht and Taís Mendes, 'Traficantes voltam a atacar militares a tiros', O Globo, 9 March 2006.
80. Maria Fernanda Tourinho Peres, Firearm-Related Violence in Brazil - Country Report (São Paulo, 2004);
81. Cano and Santos, Violência let al..
82. Jailson de Souza e Silva and André Urani, Brazil: Children in Drug Trafficking - A Rapid Assessment (Geneva, 2002).
83. Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens, p. 82.
84. Caldeira and Holston, 'Democracy and Violence in Brazil', p. 159. Despite common reference to the 'colour' of those engaged in violence, ethnicity and racial classification are particularly complex in Brazil, rendering statistics problematic. George Andrews, Afro-Latin America (Oxford, 2004);
85. Donna Goldstein, '"Interracial" Sex and Racial Democracy in Brazil: Twin Concepts?', American Anthropologist, New Series, vol. 101, no. 3(1999), pp. 563-78;
86. Peter Wade, Race and Ethnicity in Latin America (London, 1997).
87. Julio Waiselfisz, Mapa da violência 2006: os jovens do Brasil (Brasília, 2006), pp. 32-4, 62-3.
88. Although Rio may not be typical within Brazil, and indeed does not boast the highest homicide rates, its centrality to discourses and perceptions of violence justifies the focus on this city.
89. These figures do not include the 911 corpses found, or the 41 cases of bones being discovered.
90. Luke Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade: A Case Study of Children in Organized Armed Violence in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 2003).
91. Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens, p. 39.
92. For problem diagrams and community mapping, see Moser and McIlwaine, Encounters with Violence;
93. Winton, 'Youth, Gangs and Violence'.
94. Winton, 'Youth, Gangs and Violence', p. 169.
95. Although the three city-wide drugs factions have traditionally dominated nearly all of Rio's favelas, militia groups with links to the police and to politicians have been increasingly implicated in extortion, drug trafficking and other criminal and violent activities. Comissão Parlamentar de Inquérito, Relatório final da comissãoparlamentar de inquérito destinada a investigar a ação de milícias no âmbito do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Resolução N° 433/2008), Assembleia Legislativa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Dec. 2008), available at www.nepp-dh.ufrj.br/relatorio-milicia.pdf.
96. Global Justice, National Movement of Street Boys and Girls and World Organisation Against Torture, The Criminalization of Poverty: A Report on the Economic, Social and Cultural Root Causes of Torture and Other Forms of Violence in Brazil (Alternative Report to the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, Geneva, 2009).
97. Pécaut, 'From the Banality of Violence to Real Terror', p. 153.
98. Leeds, 'Rio de Janeiro'.
99. Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade, p. 64.
100. Donna Goldstein, Laughter out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown (Berkeley CA, 2003), p. 190.
101. Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade, p. 65.
102. Moura, Rostos invisíveis, pp. 47-49. There was a surge of interest following the publication of a study documenting women's roles in the illegal drugs trade
103. (Celso Athayde and M. V. Bill, Falcao - Mulheres e o tráfico, Rio de Janeiro, 2007).
104. Stanko, The Meanings of Violence, p. 3.
105. Antonius Robben and Caroline Nordstrom, 'The Anthropology and Ethnography of Violence and Sociopolitical Conflict', in Caroline Nordstrom and Antonius Robben (eds.), Fieldwork Under Fire: Contemporary Studies of Violence and Survival (London, 1995), p. 8.
106. Cockburn, 'The Continuum of Violence'.
107. Figures suggest an increase in crimes related to drugs, up from 32.6 per cent in 1988 to 56 per cent in 2000, in Rio de Janeiro state (Musumeci Soares and Ilgenfritz, Prisioneiras, p. 1). However, factors to consider include an overall rise in police arrests, increasing awareness of women's involvement, and women's limited financial bargaining power to bribe officials for an early release.
108. Figures suggest an increase in crimes related to drugs, up from 32.6 per cent in 1988 to 56 per cent in 2000, in Rio de Janeiro state (Musumeci Soares and Ilgenfritz, Prisioneiras, pp. 35-6.
109. Robert Gay, Lucia: Testimonies of a Brazilian Drug Dealer's Woman (Philadelphia PA, 2005).
110. Robert Gay, Lucia: Testimonies of a Brazilian Drug Dealer's Woman (Philadelphia PA, 2005).
111. Moser and Clark, Victims, Perpetrators or Actors?, pp. 4-5.
112. Moser and Clark, Victims, Perpetrators or Actors?, pp. 48, 70, 90, 130
113. Fundacão Perseu Abramo, A mulher brasileira nos espaços publico e privado (São Paulo, 2001); Aparecida Moraes, Bárbara Musumeci Soares and Greice Da Conceição
114. Crimes sexuais no Estado do Rio de Janeiro - 2001 a 2003', Boletim Segurança e Cidadania, vol. 4, no. 4(2005), pp. 1-20. Despite variations between cities, a recent study identified a consistent risk group of young women with low levels of schooling.
115. Michael Reichenheim et al., 'Magnitude da violência entre parceiros íntimos no Brasil: retratos de 15 capitais e Distrito Federal', Caderno Saúde Pública, vol. 22. no. 2(2006), p. 433.
116. Luciana Phebo, 'Impacto da arma de fogo na saúde da população no Brasil', in R. Cesar Fernandes (ed.), Brasil: as armas e as vítimas (Rio de Janeiro, 2005), p. 28.
117. Moura, Rostos invisíveis, p. 86.
118. See also Arthur Kellermann et al., 'Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home', New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 329, no. 15(1993), pp. 1084-91; (Pubitemid 23309251)
119. Susan Sorenson and Douglas Wiebe, 'Weapons in the Lives of Battered Women', American Journal of Public Health, vol. 94, no. 8(2004), pp. 1412-17. (Pubitemid 39006818)
120. Etienne Krug et al., World Report on Violence and Health (Geneva, 2002);
121. Lori Heise et al., 'Violence Against Women: A Neglected Public Health Issue in Less Developed Countries', Social Science and Medicine, vol. 39, no. 9(1994), p. 1168.
122. Goldstein, Laughter out of Place, p. 107.
123. Mark Aber and Julian Rappaport, 'The Violence of Prediction: The Uneasy Relationship between Social Science and Social Policy', Applied and Preventive Psychology, vol. 3, no. 1(1994), pp. 43-54.
124. Donna Goldstein, 'Nothing Bad Intended: Child Discipline, Punishment, and Survival in a Shantytown in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil', in Nancy Scheper-Hughes and Carolyn Sargent (eds.), Small Wars: The Cultural Politics of Childhood (Berkeley CA, 1998).
125. Hume, 'The Myths of Violence', p. 64.
126. Goldstein, Laughter out of Place.
127. Hume, 'The Myths of Violence', p. 64.
128. Research in Colombia showed that 49 per cent of women with a history of being abused then abused their own children: Concha Eastman, 'Urban Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Dimensions, Explanations, Actions', in Susan Rotker (ed.), Citizens of Fear: Urban Violence in Latin America (London, 2002).
129. Pearce 'Bringing Violence "Back Home"'.
130. Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces.
131. Gay, Lucia, p. 70.
132. Amnesty International, 'They Come in Shooting': Policing Socially Excluded Communities (London, 2005).
133. Cristiane de Cássia and Rubem Berta, 'Menina morre após ser atingida por uma bala durante operação policial na Rocinha', O Globo Online, 15 February 2008, available at http://oglobo.globo.com/rio/mat/ 2008/02/15/menina-morre-apos-ser-atingida-por-uma-bala-durante-operacao- policial-na-rocinha-425666297.asp.
134. Moura, Rostos invisíveis.
135. Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces;
136. Bárbara Musumeci Soares, Tatiana Moura and Carla Afonso (eds.), Auto de resistencia: relatos defamiliares de vítimas da violência armada (Rio de Janeiro, 2009).
137. Quoted in Children in Organized Armed Violence, 'Homicide Rate among Blacks in Brazil is Comparable to Nations Undergoing Civil War' (2005), available at www.comunidadesegura.org/?q=en/node/11736.
138. Maria Alves, 'A guerra no Complexo do Alemão e Penha: segurança pública ou genocídio?', available at www.comunidadesegura.org/?q=pt/node/34589.
139. Pécaut, 'From the Banality of Violence to Real Terror', p. 156.
140. On Brazil
141. see Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens;
142. Souza e Silva and Urani, Brazil: Children in Drug Trafficking;
143. and Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade. On Nicaragua
144. see Dennis Rodgers, 'Dying for It: Gangs, Violence and Social Change in Urban Nicaragua' (LSE Crisis States Programme, London, 2003). On el Salvador
145. see Wim Savenije and Chris Borgh, 'Youth Gangs, Social Exclusion and the Transformation of Violence in el Salvador', in Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Armed Actors, pp. 155-71. On Guatemala
146. see Ailsa Winton, 'Young People's Views on How to Tackle Gang Violence in "Post-Conflict" Guatemala', Environment and Urbanization, vol. 16, no. 2(2004), pp. 83-99. (Pubitemid 39447871)
147. Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens.
148. Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade, pp. 134-5.
149. Rodgers, 'Living in the Shadow of Death', pp. 267-92.
150. Moura, Rostos invisíveis, pp. 34-5.
151. One ex-gang member, who had been the boss of a drugs den, told of how she had revelled in having a reputation as being tougher than some of the men. She gave the example of how she had pulled a man along the ground while driving off in a car, and said that she had had her choice of men as sexual partners in much the same way as male gang members claim access to a choice of women.
152. Gay, Lucia.
153. This refers to the 'skull and crossbones' symbol of the Batalhão de Operações Policiais Especiais (BOPE, the elite operations unit within the Rio Military Police) that is displayed on the side of the caveirão and other BOPE vehicles.
154. Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces. Police killings are frequently categorised as accidental deaths while 'resisting arrest' (Leeds, 'Rio de Janeiro', p. 28).
155. Koonings, 'Armed Actors', p. 403.
156. Donna Pankhurst, 'The "Sex War" and Other Wars: Towards a Feminist Approach to Peace Building', Development in Practice, vol. 13, no. 2(2003), pp. 154-77. (Pubitemid 36715482)