Fear and legitimacy in São Paulo, Brazil

Police-citizen relations in a high violence, high fear city

Bibliographic Data

ID4891508
AuthorsJonathan Jackson (0000-0003-2426-2219, The University of Sydney), Krisztián Pósch (0000-0001-7524-7049, University College London), Thiago R Oliveira (0000-0002-3235-8686, University of Oxford), Ben Bradford (0000-0001-5480-5638, The University of Sydney), Sílvia Maria Mendes (0000-0002-1644-5333, University of Minho), Ariadne Lima Natal (0000-0002-5925-043X, Peace Research Institute Frankfurt), André Zanetic (0000-0003-4165-7343, Universidade Federal da Grande Dourados)
Year2022
Volume56
Issue1
Pages122-145
Publication date2022-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueLaw & Society Review (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0023-9216 • E-ISSN: 1540-5893
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1111/lasr.12589
OpenAlexW4213019213
LanguagePT
Citations received14
References cited75

We examine consensual and coercive police-citizen relations in São Paulo, Brazil. According to procedural justice theory, popular legitimacy operates as part of a virtuous circle, whereby normatively appropriate police behavior encourages people to self-regulate, which then reduces the need for coercive forms of social control. But can consensual and coercive police-citizen relations be so easily disentangled in a city in which many people fear crime, where the ability to use force can often be palpable in even mundane police-citizen interactions, where some people fear police but also tolerate extreme police violence, and where the image of the military police as "just another (violent) gang" has significant cultural currency? Legitimacy has two components-assent (ascribed right to power) and consent (conferred right to govern)-and consistent with prior work from the US, UK, and Australia, we find that procedural justice is key to the legitimation of the police. Yet, the empirical link between legitimacy and legal compliance is complicated by ambivalent authority relations, rooted in part in heightened cultural expectations about police use of force to exercise power. We finish the paper with a discussion of the theoretical and policy implications of these findings

Ambivalence · Criminal justice · Criminology · Economic Justice · Legitimacy · Legitimation · Political science · Politics · Power (physics · Procedural justice · Sociology · Virtuous circle and vicious circle · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Law · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Psychology · Social Psychology

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