PASARGADA REVISITED: POLICING FAVELAS IN BRAZIL (FROM ALTERNATIVE POLICING STYLES: CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES, P 123-130, 1993, MARK FINDLAY AND UGLJESA ZVEKIC, EDS. -- SEE NCJ-146911)

• NCJ Number: 146918
• Author(s): E B Junqueira; A de Souza Rodriques
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 8 pages
• Sale Source: Kluwer Law International
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: Italy

Annotation

This paper examines how crime gangs of administered informal justice in the favelas (lower income neighborhoods) of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Abstract

The favela is a low-income neighborhood that interrelates with the city through a complex network of material and symbolic exchange. Favela residents view the police as a corrupt, arbitrary, and violent force used by the wealthy against them. Still, the favela needs some type of public-safety mechanism that has coercive power to sanction and control behavior that undermines community interests. The boca-de-fumo, the term used for an organized drug gang, has met this need. The boca-de-fumo enforces law and order in the favela and metes out justice. It imposes order by enforcing its own penal code, which includes penalties such as house arrest, temporary banishment, and even death. In resolving disputes and meting out punishment, the boca-de-fumo helps preserve order, and in return, the favela provides gang members with protection from the police. This arrangement is beneficial both to the residents and to the drug gang. 15 footnotes