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‘New Violence’: Silencing Women's Experiences in the Favelas of Brazil

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 February 2011

POLLY WILDING
POLLY WILDING
Affiliation:
Polly Wilding is a lecturer in gender and international development at the School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds. Email: p.wilding@leeds.ac.uk.
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Abstract

This article contributes to recent analyses of gendered violence in Latin America by highlighting the relative neglect of women's experiences of violence in the discussion of ‘new violence’. In Latin America, women are consistently missing from mainstream debates about violence, which concentrate on urban crime, youth gangs and the police. With a focus on urban Brazil, this article argues for a gendered approach to the range of different forms of violence in order to render visible the variety of roles that women play in the context and in specific incidents of urban violence. It also explores the gendered impacts of various forms of violence and the gendered socialisation of violence. The article challenges the un-gendered concept of new violence, questioning its ability to capture the full gamut of violences that men and women experience, and the connections between these various forms. By adjusting the parameters of the debate, this article highlights the complexity of the gendered social relations and processes that reproduce violence, and adds a further dimension to the discussion of violence and security.

Abstract

Este artículo contribuye a los análisis recientes de la violencia de género en Latinoamérica al subrayar la relativa inexistencia de experiencias de violencia de las mujeres en las discusiones de la ‘nueva violencia’. En Latinoamérica, las mujeres están consistentemente ausentes de los debates sobre la violencia que más bien se concentran en el crimen urbano, las pandillas juveniles y la policía. Centrándose en el Brasil urbano, este artículo propone un enfoque de género al abanico de diferentes formas de violencia con el fin de hacer visible los roles que juegan las mujeres tanto en el contexto como en los incidentes de violencia urbana. También explora los impactos de las varias formas de violencia y su socialización según el género. El artículo desafía el concepto de la ‘nueva violencia’ sin género, cuestionando su habilidad de capturar la gama de violencias que experimentan hombres y mujeres, y las conexiones entres estas ellas. Al ajustar los parámetros del debate, el ensayo subraya la complejidad de las relaciones sociales y los procesos vinculados al género que reproducen la violencia, y añade una dimensión más a la discusión de la violencia y la seguridad.

Abstract

Este artigo dialoga com as análises recentes acerca da violência relacionada ao gênero, destacando o tratamento negligente que é dado aos casos de violência sofridos por mulheres na discussão sobre a ‘nova violência’. Na América Latina, as mulheres estão frequentemente ausentes dos principais debates sobre a violência, que focalizam o crime urbano, as gangues de jovens e a polícia. Concentrando no Brasil urbano, o artigo defende uma abordagem que insere a questão de gênero nas diversas categorias de violência, de modo que a variedade de papéis assumidos pelas mulheres tanto no contexto quanto nos incidentes relacionados à violência urbana venham à tona. Também explora os impactos de várias formas de violência e da socialização da violência com relação às questões ligadas ao gênero. O artigo desafia o conceito da ‘nova violência’ não associado às questões de gênero, indagando sua capacidade de capturar todo o espectro de violências sofridas por homens e mulheres e as conexões entre as várias formas de violência. Ao ajustar os parâmetros do debate, é destacada a complexidade das relações sociais ligadas ao gênero e dos processos que reproduzem a violência, acrescentando outra dimensão às discussões acerca da violência e da segurança.

Keywords

genderurban violencenew violencedomestic violencegangspolicesecuritygéneroviolencia urbananueva violenciaviolencia domésticapandillaspolicíaseguridadgêneroviolência urbanaviolência domésticaganguespolíciasegurança
Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Latin American Studies , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , November 2010 , pp. 719 - 747
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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References

1 Ignacio Cano and Nilton Santos, Violência letal, renda e desigualdade no Brasil (Rio de Janeiro, 2001); Huggins, Martha, ‘Legacies of Authoritarianism: Brazilian Torturers’ and Murderers' Reformulation of Memory', Latin American Perspectives, vol. 27, no. 2 (2000), pp. 57–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 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: sumário executivo (Rio de Janeiro, 2006); 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.

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4 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. See Tropa de elite (Elite Squad), directed by José Padilha (2007); Cidade de Deus (City of God), directed by Fernando Meirelles (2002); 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.

5 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).

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8 Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens; Winton, Ailsa, ‘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. 167–84CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 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).

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11 Mo Hume, The Politics of Violence: Gender, Conflict and Community in El Salvador (London, 2009).

12 Tatiana Moura, Rostos invisíveis da violência armada: um estudo de caso sobre o Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 2007); Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces: Women's Experiences of Urban Violence in Brazil (London, 2008); Bárbara Musumeci Soares and Iara Ilgenfritz, Prisioneiras: vida e violência atrás das grades (Rio de Janeiro, 2002).

13 See, for example, Caroline Moser and Fiona Clark (eds.), Victims, Perpetrators or Actors? Gender, Armed Conflict and Political Violence (London, 2001); Hume, The Politics of Violence; and Moura, Rostos invisíveis.

14 Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens; Guaracy Mingardi, Tiras, gansos e trutas: cotidiano e reforma na Polícia Civil (São Paulo, 1992); Zaluar, Alba, ‘Crime, medo e polícia’, Sociedade e Estado, vol. 10 (1995), pp. 391–416Google Scholar; Aline Boueri and Marina Lemle, ‘O Rio entre traficantes e milícias’, available at www.comunidadesegura.org/?q=pt/node/31173; Cano and Santos, Violência letal.

15 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.

16 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.

17 Kristin Valasek, ‘Security Sector Reform and Gender’, in Megan Bastick and Kristin Valasek (eds.), Gender and Security Sector Reform Toolkit (Geneva, 2008); Tickner, J. Ann, ‘You Just Don't Understand: Troubled Engagements between Feminists and IR Theorists’, International Studies Quarterly, vol. 41, no. 4 (1997)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Paul Viotti and Mark Kauppi, International Relations Theory (London, 2010).

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20 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; Kees Koonings and Dirk Kruijt (eds.), Fractured Cities: Social Exclusion, Urban Violence & Contested Spaces in Latin America (London, 2007); Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Societies of Fear; Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Armed Actors.

21 Lemanski, Charlotte, ‘A New Apartheid? The Spatial Implications of Fear of Crime in Cape Town, South Africa’, Environment and Urbanization, vol. 16. no. 2 (2004), pp. 101–12CrossRefGoogle Scholar; 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.

22 Koonings, Kees, ‘Armed Actors, Violence and Democracy in Latin America in the 1990s’, Bulletin of Latin American Research, vol. 20, no. 4 (2001), p. 403CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

23 Ibid.

24 Elizabeth Leeds, ‘Rio de Janeiro’, in Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Fractured Cities, pp. 23–35; Méndez, Pinheiro and O'Donnell (eds.), The (Un)Rule of Law, p. 143.

25 Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Armed Actors; Zaluar, ‘The Paradoxes of Democratization and Violence’.

26 Hume, The Politics of Violence; Philippe Bourgois, The Power of Violence in War and Peace: Post-Cold War Lessons from El Salvador (Oxford, 2001).

27 Huggins, ‘Legacies of Authoritarianism’; Koonings and Kruijt (eds.), Societies of Fear; Méndez, Pinheiro and O'Donnell (eds.), The (Un)Rule of Law.

28 Pearce, ‘Bringing Violence “Back Home”’; Caroline Moser and Cathy McIlwaine, Encounters with Violence in Latin America (London, 2004); Moura, Rostos invisíveis; Wright, Melissa, ‘A Manifesto Against Femicide’, Antipode, vol. 33, no. 3 (2001), pp. 550–66CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

29 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.

30 Hume, Mo, ‘The Myths of Violence: Gender, Community and Conflict in El Salvador’, Latin American Perspectives, vol. 35, no. 5 (2008), pp. 59–76CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

31 Peter Benson, Fischer, Edward and Thomas, Kedron, ‘Resocializing Suffering: Neoliberalism, Accusation, and the Sociopolitical Context of Guatemala's New Violence’, Latin American Perspectives, vol. 35, no. 5 (2008), pp. 38–58Google Scholar.

32 Pearce, Jenny, ‘Perverse state formation and securitised democracy in Latin America’, Democratization, vol. 17, no. 2 (2010), pp. 286–306CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

33 Rodgers, ‘Living in the Shadow of Death’.

34 Benson, Fischer and Thomas, ‘Resocializing Suffering’.

35 David Levinson, Family Violence in Cross-Cultural Perspective (London, 1989); R. Emerson Dobash and Russell Dobash, Violence Against Wives: A Case against the Patriarchy (New York, 1979).

36 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.

37 Evans, Brad, ‘The State of Violence’, International Journal of Human Rights, vol. 11, no. 3 (2007), p. 358CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hume, ‘The Myths of Violence’, p. 61.

38 Caroline Moser, ‘The Gendered Continuum of Violence and Conflict’, in Moser and Clark (eds.), Victims, Perpetrators or Actors?, p. 49.

39 Margaret Schuler, Freedom from Violence: Women's Strategies from around the World (New York, 1992).

40 Hume, ‘The Myths of Violence’, p. 63.

41 Pearce, ‘Bringing Violence “Back Home”’.

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45 Evans, ‘The State of Violence’, p. 351.

46 Célia Costa, Daniel Engelbrecht and Taís Mendes, ‘Traficantes voltam a atacar militares a tiros’, O Globo, 9 March 2006.

47 Maria Fernanda Tourinho Peres, Firearm-Related Violence in Brazil – Country Report (São Paulo, 2004); Cano and Santos, Violência letal.

48 Jailson de Souza e Silva and André Urani, Brazil: Children in Drug Trafficking – A Rapid Assessment (Geneva, 2002).

49 Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens, p. 82.

50 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); Goldstein, Donna, ‘“Interracial” Sex and Racial Democracy in Brazil: Twin Concepts?’, American Anthropologist, New Series, vol. 101, no. 3 (1999), pp. 563–78CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Peter Wade, Race and Ethnicity in Latin America (London, 1997).

51 Julio Waiselfisz, Mapa da violência 2006: os jovens do Brasil (Brasília, 2006), pp. 32–4, 62–3.

52 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.

53 These figures do not include the 911 corpses found, or the 41 cases of bones being discovered.

54 Luke Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade: A Case Study of Children in Organized Armed Violence in Rio de Janeiro (Rio de Janeiro, 2003).

55 Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens, p. 39.

56 For problem diagrams and community mapping, see Moser and McIlwaine, Encounters with Violence; Winton, ‘Youth, Gangs and Violence’.

57 Winton, ‘Youth, Gangs and Violence’, p. 169.

58 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 comissão parlamentar de inquérito destinada a investigar a ação de milícias no âmbito do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Resolução N° 433/2008), Assembléia Legislativa do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (Dec. 2008), available at www.nepp-dh.ufrj.br/relatorio_milicia.pdf.

59 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).

60 Pécaut, ‘From the Banality of Violence to Real Terror’, p. 153.

61 Leeds, ‘Rio de Janeiro’.

62 Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade, p. 64.

63 Donna Goldstein, Laughter out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio Shantytown (Berkeley CA, 2003), p. 190.

64 Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade, p. 65.

65 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 (Celso Athayde and M. V. Bill, Falcão – Mulheres e o tráfico, Rio de Janeiro, 2007).

66 Stanko, The Meanings of Violence, p. 3.

67 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.

68 Cockburn, ‘The Continuum of Violence’.

69 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.

70 Ibid., pp. 35–6.

71 Robert Gay, Lucia: Testimonies of a Brazilian Drug Dealer's Woman (Philadelphia PA, 2005).

72 Ibid., pp. 48–9.

73 Moser and Clark, Victims, Perpetrators or Actors?, pp. 4–5.

74 Ibid., pp. 48, 70, 90, 130.

75 Fundação Perseu Abramo, A mulher brasileira nos espaços público e privado (São Paulo, 2001); Moraes, Aparecida, Soares, Bárbara Musumeci and Conceição, Greice Da, ‘Crimes sexuais no Estado do Rio de Janeiro – 2001 a 2003’, Boletim Segurança e Cidadania, vol. 4, no. 4 (2005), pp. 1–20Google Scholar. Despite variations between cities, a recent study identified a consistent risk group of young women with low levels of schooling. Reichenheim, Michael 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. 433Google Scholar.

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77 Moura, Rostos invisíveis, p. 86. See also Kellermann, Arthur et al. , ‘Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home’, New England Journal of Medicine, vol. 329, no. 15 (1993), pp. 1084–91CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Sorenson, Susan and Wiebe, Douglas, ‘Weapons in the Lives of Battered Women’, American Journal of Public Health, vol. 94, no. 8 (2004), pp. 1412–17CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

78 Etienne Krug et al., World Report on Violence and Health (Geneva, 2002); Heise, Lori et al. , ‘Violence Against Women: A Neglected Public Health Issue in Less Developed Countries’, Social Science and Medicine, vol. 39, no. 9 (1994), p. 1168CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

79 Goldstein, Laughter out of Place, p. 107.

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82 Hume, ‘The Myths of Violence’, p. 64.

83 Goldstein, Laughter out of Place.

84 Hume, ‘The Myths of Violence’, p. 64.

85 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).

86 Pearce ‘Bringing Violence “Back Home”’.

87 Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces.

88 Gay, Lucia, p. 70.

89 Amnesty International, ‘They Come in Shooting’: Policing Socially Excluded Communities (London, 2005).

90 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.

91 Moura, Rostos invisíveis.

92 Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces; Bárbara Musumeci Soares, Tatiana Moura and Carla Afonso (eds.), Auto de resistência: relatos de familiares de vítimas da violência armada (Rio de Janeiro, 2009).

93 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.

94 Maria Alves, ‘A guerra no Complexo do Alemão e Penha: segurança pública ou genocídio?’, available at www.comunidadesegura.org/?q=pt/node/34589.

95 Pécaut, ‘From the Banality of Violence to Real Terror’, p. 156.

96 On Brazil, see Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens; Souza e Silva and Urani, Brazil: Children in Drug Trafficking; and Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade. On Nicaragua, see Dennis Rodgers, ‘Dying for It: Gangs, Violence and Social Change in Urban Nicaragua’ (LSE Crisis States Programme, London, 2003). On El Salvador, 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, see Winton, Ailsa, ‘Young People's Views on How to Tackle Gang Violence in “Post-Conflict” Guatemala’, Environment and Urbanization, vol. 16, no. 2 (2004), pp. 83–99Google Scholar.

97 Souza e Silva et al., Caminhada de crianças, adolescentes e jovens.

98 Dowdney, Children of the Drug Trade, pp. 134–5.

99 Rodgers, ‘Living in the Shadow of Death’, pp. 267–92.

100 Moura, Rostos invisíveis, pp. 34–5.

101 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.

102 Gay, Lucia.

103 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.

104 Amnesty International, Picking up the Pieces. Police killings are frequently categorised as accidental deaths while ‘resisting arrest’ (Leeds, ‘Rio de Janeiro’, p. 28).

105 Koonings, ‘Armed Actors’, p. 403.

106 Pankhurst, Donna, ‘The “Sex War” and Other Wars: Towards a Feminist Approach to Peace Building’, Development in Practice, vol. 13, no. 2 (2003), pp. 154–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar.