Scapegoating outsiders

The murders of street youth in modern Brazil

Bibliographic Data

ID12364315
AuthorsMartha K Huggins (corresponding author), Myriam P Mesquita
Year1995
Volume5
Issue4
Pages265-280
Publication date1995-12-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenuePolicing & Society (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1043-9463 • E-ISSN: 1477-2728
PublisherTaylor & Francis (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10439463.1995.9964730
OpenAlexW2511716194
LanguageEN
Citations received14
References cited4

This analysis of youth murders in modern Brazil focuses on victim‐generating sociostructural situations and the social creation of victims. We assert that as political and social outcasts the young victims of murder are virtually powerless within the legitimate system ‐ hence their civic invisibility. And when poor youths’ presence on Brazilian streets is combined with their political inconsequence, the prospective victims are socially visible only as symbolic assailants and are rendered vulnerable to uncontested murder by strangers. For the most part their murderers are “rent‐a‐cops” and on‐ and off‐duty police, either working as lone‐wolf justiceiros or in groups of death squads. The actions of these killers is neutralized by cultural stereotypes that transform victims into victimizers and make killers into social servants

Criminology · Homicide · Invisibility · Poison control · Political science · Politics · Scapegoating · Sociology · Suicide prevention · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Crime, Deviance, and Social Control · Crime, Illicit Activities, and Governance · Law

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