“The Police is worse than bandit”. Views and experiences of youngsters in Brazilian favelas.

Description

This presentation focussed in my experience working with young people involved in drug trafficking gangs in Favela da Mare, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Favela da Mare is the biggest favela in Rio de Janeiro with over 130.000 residents. The experience was based in my work in the Escape Routes programme which was created and implemented by the NGO Observatory of Favelas. Escape Routes aimed to find alternatives of life for members of drug trafficking gangs. The lessons learnt from this experience led me to conduct my PhD research as a way to better understand the factors that influence the entrance and exit of criminal life for youth in favelas. For the Police and also for the most of people in society these groups do not have solution, and following this social representation their deaths have been seen as a normal procedure to provide security to the ‘good citizenships’. The historical relation between Police and residents in favelas reveals a great difference in terms of police approach addressed to these areas and these people which is based on violence, abuse of power and executions. This presentation will focus on the perceptions on the Police actions coming from ex-members of drug trafficking and also youth residents in favelas and how the impact of this actions in their lifes.

Period	13 Nov 2015
Event title	Police, Favelas and Human Rights in Brazil
Event type	Seminar
Location	Dundee, United KingdomShow on map