Violence in Brazilian Society Part I
We want to discuss in this article the level of violence that Brazilian society has reached.
In addition to being a physical or moral constraint, violence is a shameful act that happens daily, everywhere in Brazil and in the world. No one goes out onto the street anymore sure that they will return home, many people die and leave families in distress because of an assault, a stray bullet or another cause of violence.
When walking through the streets, no one trusts anyone anymore, everyone when approaching anyone is already very worried, always thinking that they will be robbed or worse.
With each passing day the violence increases rapidly, instead of everyone being united, it seems that they separate. We do not know what tomorrow will be like, there is so much fear within us that we think of nothing but violence. We cannot forget to highlight the violence in sports fans. Thing that should be fun ends in violence and death.
Who doesn’t watch television? Every day there are cases and more cases of deaths, murders. Almost all of them have one thing in common: impunity.
- Factors that generate Violence
- Domestic violence
- Bullying
- Sexual Violence
- Unemployment in Brazil
As we all know, serious violations of human rights continue to occur in Brazil.
The victims tend to be those most in need of protection: the urban and rural poor, indigenous peoples, blacks, young people and also those who work for them: lawyers, priests, union leaders, peasants. Violators are often agents of the state, whose legal responsibility is to protect citizens.
Despite some notable exceptions, impunity still prevails for most crimes against human rights.
In many cities, forces emerged that began to exploit the social disintegration of the urban environment, to impose their own forms of social regulation. The widening gaps between wealth and poverty, together with organized crime activities and the availability of weapons, created an explosive mix, in which Brazilian social violence escalated. Adding to this the inadequacy of the judiciary and the propensity of certain sectors of the police to act as judge, jury and executioner of those who consider “marginal elements”, a political and legal vacuum was created in which brutal human rights violations occur.
But, while history and social standards help us to understand the problems of human rights in Brazil, it is not enough to explain the impunity that an excessively large number of violators of these rights enjoy.
Gaps in Impunity
A series of loopholes have formed at the core of Brazilian society, which allow such crimes to go unpunished.
The first is the gap between legislation designed to protect human rights and its implementation.
The Brazilian people have a legitimate expectation that the civil and political rights enshrined in the Constitution and the law will be fairly and effectively enforced by the state. In Rio de Janeiro, in the 10 months following the Vigário Geral massacre – from September 1993 to June 1994 – the deaths of 1,200 people were recorded at the hands of death squads. Over 80% of these crimes remain unsolved.
The outlook in rural areas is even worse. In only about 4% of the cases of death of peasants and rural union leaders, those responsible were brought to trial.
When the expectations of those who rely on justice and seek it are frustrated, the texture of society begins to disintegrate. As in other countries, it has been this experience of many Brazilians, especially in the periphery of large cities and in some rural areas. It follows that social relations are not regulated by law, but by a combination of intimidation and sponsorship.
The second gap is between the sectors of the security forces and the people they have sworn to protect.
The Brazilian people have the right to live without fear of crime. But you also have the right to live without fear of the police. Of the 173 cases of murders that occurred in rural areas, in 19993, with the participation of hired gunmen, which the Attorney General’s Office is investigating, it was proved that 80 counted on the direct participation of military or civil police.
The death of the suspect in a crime in front of TV cameras in Rio de Janeiro and the massacre of 111 detainees at the Casa de Detenção in São Paulo have a common element: they show that police officers feel they have control over life and the death of citizens.
As an illustrious member of the São Paulo section of the Brazilian Bar Association observed, regarding the Carandiru case, more terrifying than the number of victims was the number of violators. This shows how a collective feeling of impunity could be rooted in the organizational culture of certain sectors of the security forces.
But it is possible to change. Following the massacre of the House of Detention, measures were taken to establish stricter standards for investigating police killings in the streets, and all officers involved in fatal shootings were forced to consult a psychiatrist.
The third gap would be between the search for justice and the State’s ability to provide it.
Unfortunately for many Brazilians, especially for those who are part of the most vulnerable sectors of the population, Brazil is also a country without justice.
It is not that the people do not believe in justice. It is that their convictions are cruelly destroyed by the people whose duty it would be to preserve them.
These gaps between the law and its application, between the security forces and the people they have sworn to protect, and between the search for justice and the State’s ability to provide it, create a bigger and more justifiable gap: a gap in the very soul society, which separates the State from its citizens and citizens from each other.
That is why such issues no longer concern only the victims, their families and those who struggle with courage and determination in organizations that defend human rights, to affect Brazilian society as a whole.
