A Southern Criminology of Violence, Youth and Policing by Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti

Author:Roxana Pessoa Cavalcanti [Cavalcanti, Roxana Pessoa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781138584709
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2020-03-25T00:00:00+00:00

Thundercats and Hylanders are two of Pernambuco’s armed organised criminal groups. They have been associated with multiple offences, such as fraud, drug trafficking, extortion, armed robbery and summary executions, often linked to the acerto de contas, that is, an informal type of “justice” or violent punishment to settle debts or punish those who have debts in the underground economy. The acerto can also refer to bribe arranged with the police in exchange for freedom (for more details on the dynamics of the acerto see Mingardi 2000). However, residents’ experiences in the case study communities tell a different story.

In contrast to securitisation programmes in the southeast of Brazil (e.g. UPPs or Pacifying Police Units in Rio), the state apparatus in Pernambuco did not need to reclaim spaces from the control of drug lords. Yet, one similarity between the UPPs and PPV is the expansion of policing in poor communities, as illustrated by the comments of a civil police delegada:

The problems here are different. The drug trade in Rio is far more organised than anywhere else in the country. They are also better armed, with guerrilla firearms. The similarity [in our approach to security] is that here we [also] have the neighbourhood patrol, which brings the police inside [poor] communities like the UPPs do in Rio, except that here they come in police cars [not in military tanks or on foot].

(Recife, 24 September 2013)

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