Nancy Cardia
Universidade de São Paulo
The survey data being used for this presentation was collected in the last week of March in 10 Brazilian state capitals: Porto Alegre, São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Belo Horizonte, Salvador, Recife, Belem, Manaus, Porto Velho and Goiania. 1600 questionnaires were applied to respondents from 16 years of age upwards. Data analysis will consider: age, gender, race, religious affiliation, educational level and income level.
This presentation is limited to a preliminary analysis of the data since the statistical analysis is still under way and what we have available are cross- tabs with each of the main descriptive variables, with percentage of responses. Still for the objective of the workshop this data may provide some insights. Also we are limiting ourselves to the data relative to São Paulo (500 questionnaires). Respondents were interviewed at home and the sample was selected in two stages: in the first stage according to the population living in the area (probability proportional to size) and in the second stage within each census area, by quota considering sex, age and occupation.
Also we are highlighting the comparisons between age groups. Age, along with race seem to be two very important sources of differences in the responses. Of course this is a very preliminary run through the data that will be affected as the statistical processing is carried through.
The survey had as its main objective to identify the respondents beliefs about violence and to identify and search for the roots of the shared representations of: a) their actual experience with violence as children: the exposure to physical punishment and the present exposure to violence both in interpersonal relations and criminal violence; b) the causes of violence; c) legitimate uses attributed to violence- what violence is deemed to be just and what is unjust; what violence is perceived to be acceptable and functional and what is not- for self defense, vengeance, defense of honor to obtain compliance etc.; d) finally the survey covered their perceptions of the police and of the judiciary as well as their support for the institutions (data not presented here).
Data for São Paulo
Salience of violence
The survey tried to establish at first the salience of the theme violence to the respondents: is violence something that is felt to be a relevant issue to their lives- how do they evaluate it;
Violence is felt to be growing by an overwhelming majority within all age groups. Violence is felt to affect life in the cities much more than their communities or their families. This could mean that despite the growth of violence and it salience to the respondents violence is not felt to be affecting their routines or their patterns of relating to closer groups but their life in a more anonymous context of the city.
The impact of violence
| These days newspapers, radio and television talk a lot about violence. | ||||||
| How would you rate the impact of this violence? | ||||||
|
AGE | |||||
| TOTAL | 16-24 | 25-34 | 35-49 | 50 and over | ||
| Very intense | Very intense | Very intense | Very intense | |||
| % | % | % | % | % | ||
| In your family | 13 | 12 | 12 | 14 | 14 | |
| In your community? | 19 | 19 | 20 | 19 | 17 | |
| In your city? | 57 | 56 | 55 | 62 | 52 | |
We also tried to identify which form of violence is seen as more disturbing to people, that is, the one that causes most discomfort. As expected it is that perpetrated by delinquents followed by the violence committed by the police and interpersonal violence. The distress provoked by the violence committed by delinquents seems to increase with the age of the respondents whereas the violence committed by the police seems to be more distressing to the younger groups perhaps because they are more likely to have contact with the police and with its incivilities. Violence on the public transit system is an issue more relevant to the older groups and all groups seem to underestimate the costs of family violence and that of violence in the schools. This is not to say that they are not exposed to it; to the contrary it seems to be expressing a certain acceptance of some forms of violence as normal.
It was also important to identify what types of criminal violence that respondents considered must be punished in order to understand how they react to the uses of violence and what they justify and what they reject.
Rape is considered to be the most serious crime for which there should always be punishment. This was followed by kidnapping and homicide. It is interesting that robbery followed by death (latrocinio) is something that is more of a concern for older age groups than younger ones.
The exposure to violence
In terms of the actual exposure to violence in the past and in the present there is some difference between age groups. Most respondents (2/3) experienced as children physical punishment. Half of these experienced it frequently and in one age group 1/5 was punished daily.
One would expect that having been socialized with disciplining methods that used physical punishment that the respondents would accept the use of such methods. When questioned about this there is overwhelming denial that physical punishment should be used to discipline an unruly child; 81% of the respondents say that you should not use spanking. Nevertheless, when confronted with questions about how they would behave should their child present a series of behavioral problems: lying, caught shop lifting, skipping school, misbehaving in school, caught doing graffiti, vandalizing property, smoking marijuana, staying out of the house until late, younger respondents and those who reported more experience with physical punishment as children were the ones that most often would apply physical punishment. This response was almost twice as much as that by older respondents or those that did not report as much contact with physical punishment. The majority would resort to dialogue and in the case of marijuana use and about _ would seek professional help. However, when the behavior involved a more serious transgression: vandalizing, shop lifting and graffiti; the response was use of physical punishment. This suggests that the evidence from studies on corporal punishment indicating that parents that suffered this as children replicate the experience with the new generation may be valid for São Paulo as well.
The exposure to violence was measured in three different contexts: the neighborhood, at work and at school. Similarly to results obtained in the U.S. most violence seems to occur in the neighborhood, much more than near the workplace or the school. Data was collected for the 12 months previous to the survey
Verbal assault and threats to life to a relative were the most frequent violence followed by theft and robbery. For the group of younger respondents being offered drugs and being asked to find drugs or tell where they could be found were most frequent. In general the younger groups seem more exposed to the violence listed than the older groups. Verbal assaults can escalate to physical violence as it becomes more and more abusive. This is especially the case when people are experiencing other forms of stressful events. About 1/3 of the respondents had some stressful experience during the previous 12 months, such as the death of people close to them, changes in the family composition, moving houses or by violence in the neighborhood. Again, the latter seems to affect the younger groups more as these are the ones that have more contact with life in community, have more social life and are more exposed to the collective than the older groups
Despite the fact that most violence reported refers to the neighborhood the latter is felt not to be under heavy impact of violence as expressed in the their evaluation of where violence hits harder. In fact most people seem to feel very attached to their neighborhoods and well integrated into it and with the people there and this seems to increase with the age of the respondent.
This data suggests that contrary to what the literature, the media and even qualitative studies have shown, violence has not yet led to a widespread withdrawal from the community in the sense of the actual neighborhood. Indeed, this withdrawal may be specific of the areas most affected by violence. Among the strategies listed by respondents to cope with the increase in violence reducing going out at night is the most frequent. Again, young people more often than older groups avoid areas of town or change their route to school or to work to avoid problems.
The greater likelihood of violence within their community has not resulted in intolerance or in the defense of the exclusion of people as evidenced by the respondents answers to questions about what is the ideal composition of a neighborhood. Nevertheless, a third of the respondents would be willing to expel people considered to be troublemakers (and this seems to be more consensual among younger respondents). In general the survey points to a tolerance with regard to differences in social class, religion, race, and political ideas.
Since younger people are more often the victims of violence, homicide in particular, we designed part of the questionnaire to apply only to respondents below 20 years of age (16-20). While only 66 respondents met this condition in the São Paulo sample, the results are still impressive. When asked about whether they know any young person in their neighborhood, at school or at work that in the previous 12 months suffered various forms of violence the neighborhood was again the scenario of most violence. One third reported knowing victims of armed robberies, _ reported knowing victims of gun wounds and 17% reported knowing of the homicide of a youngster like him/herself.
The younger age group is exposed to the violence suffered by their peer group and perpetrated by their peer group. When asked whether any of their friends, or colleagues had victimized or had been a victim of violence about half of the respondents had a friend/mate who seriously assaulted another, a 1/3 had friends that had been involved in a gang fight, another 1/3 has friends who carry guns, close to a third knows someone who has robbed persons using a gun and 12% know a young person who has committed murder. This exposure to violence by young people witnessing their peer group being victimized and victimizing seems to be affecting how they think about violence: the cause and the uses of violence.
The causes of violence
Drugs and alcohol are perceived as the major culprits for violence. This is a widespread belief of the respondents and one much disseminated by the media one that seems to concur with their common sense or personal experience. It is interesting to note that there is more consensus among the younger groups on the causes of violence than among the older groups. This is evident specifically in terms of explanations for violence that refer to the need to maintain a reputation of toughness or preemptive violence as causes for violence that are in general rejected by older respondents. The greater agreement of this cause by younger people may derive from their closer experience with these events. The differences between groups will have to be explored at length.
Carrying guns increases the chances that people will be involved in violent episodes. We investigated the respondents perceptions of the most important reason for people to carry guns: self-protection, to feel strong and to impress others are the most frequent reasons quoted as important. Again there are differences between age groups that need further exploration. More respondents over 50 years of age responded that self-protection was the most important reason to carry a gun than the other age groups.
Violence in schools is again attributed mostly to the use and trade of drugs in schools or in their vicinity, to the presence of gangs among the students- to disputes between groups and this in turn to the presence of students carrying guns and consuming alcohol. Other reasons cited refer the actual experience young people have in school: the lack of commitment of students to schooling, school failure, overcrowding of classes provoke less consensus among the respondents indicating that important research results are not as widely disseminated as the drug/alcohol/arms/gang combination.
Legitimate uses attributed to violence
If violence is mostly rooted in the consumption of intoxicating substances and on the availability of arms, this suggests that in general the violence resulting from such confrontations could be interpreted as a violence that is not, in general, perceived as legitimate. Other sources of violence are rooted in a certain need to keep face: lack of control over ones emotions such as responding to an insult when provoked, or as result of jealousy for instance and it is difficult to assess whether this type is considered to be legitimate or not. So, to explore the values and norms concerning violence, situations were presented to the respondents and they were asked to evaluate whether or not they agreed with the use of violence in the situations described. These situations involved values about self-defense, honor, jealousy, and response to insults.
Most respondents agree that violence used for self- defense is legitimate. A person is entitled to kill in order to defend him/herself or his/her family but only a third approves killing to defend property. The use of violence to solve disputes between men for a woman or between women for a male are rejected by the majority as are the possession of guns for safety. Again this rejection is less consensual among the younger group especially in reference to the possession of guns: a third of the young respondents believe that having a gun in the house increases the safety of the home and nearly _ believes that carrying a gun increases a person's safety.
The concept that violence for self-defense is legitimate is reiterated by the respondents' answers to another question about whether resorting to violence was just or unjust. Again violence is justified for self-defense and, for some age groups, to defend their property and honor as well, in contradiction with the responses to the previous set of questions. Here the defense of honor was not related to emotional affairs but left abstract and the use of violence to repair damage to one's honor was considered just mostly by older respondents. To use violence to ensure people's compliance to one's desires is rejected by almost all respondents.
The use of physical punishment to discipline students is rejected by most respondents even if the students destroyed school material or assaulted the teacher. Despite this general trend over a 1/3 of the young respondents consider it to be fair that the teacher uses violence when assaulted by a student.
Another way to check the respondents' response to the use of violence was to make explicit the use of physical force to repair insults. The use of physical force to repair an insult was rejected by most respondents. However, the use of force is more accepted by the younger age group in which a 1/3 and a _ consider that insults to the mother and passes made at their partners can evoke a violent response.
Interestingly enough, as we move from more "theoretical" situations to real ones and ask respondents to say how they would feel: whether they would approve the use of violence, not approve but understand the reaction and not approve nor understand the responses given begin to provide further insight into perceptions about the use of violence.
Killing in vengeance for an ill deed is approved by over a 1/3 of the respondents and not approved but the action is understood by another 39%. Empathy with this type of action seems to be stronger in the younger group of respondents, also the group that rates raping as one of the most serious offenses and one for which there should always be punishment. Killing people who disturb the neighborhood is not rejected outright but meets with the approval and understanding of about 1/3 of respondents. Overall, violent responses are rejected by the majority of the respondents but this rejection does not seem to have the same strength in all age groups. On the contrary, there seems to be a heterogeneous reaction to violence and that this type of behavior is more acceptable within some age groups than within others. At first glance, the younger respondents seem to be more susceptible to accept violence. This requires extensive statistical testing. The differences in responses using different questions as stimuli suggests that a certain reticence to manifest their real opinion may have been involved in answering the questions since as we move from more abstract questions to specific situations there are changes in the pattern of response. Besides all the statistical treatment there is the need to de-brief some of the people surveyed in order to understand how they reacted and to the questions and how they interpreted them: their meaning and the meaning of their responses.
Regardless, this preliminary data highlights the age differences in uses, exposure and perceptions of violence in the city of São Paulo. Young people are more exposed to violence and more accepting of the use of violence in more contexts than the older respondents in the survey. This becomes clearer as respondents are asked to respond to specific situations regarding the use of violence.
Rene Alejandro Jiménez Ornelas
Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
In Mexico and Latin America certain regions are characterized by alarming situations of insecurity such as the increasing manifestations of violence. Until a couple of years ago, research on the subject had lacked a multi-disciplinary approach. It is with the creation of policies and projects like the Interinstitucional Investigation on Social Violence in Mexico (PIIVIOS) that the necessity to generate a multidisciplinary investigative body that includes diverse disciplines for the systematic study of the phenomenon's of violence can be considered. Research by this group constitutes an advancement in the study of violence in the region from the sociological point of view, integrating itself into other research initiatives that raise possible alternatives for the explanation and viability of solutions to the problem of rising violence.
In diverse research and in remarkable coincidence with international observations, the first passage in the formulation of proposals for the diminution of the violence, is the generation of reliable information and its suitable operation; this activity is fundamental to formulate policy and programs to confront the high incidence of the violent phenomenon.
The creation of a System of Surveys on Criminal Statistics and Perceptions of Public Security, that will allow for the use and complementation of existing information, but that mainly generates new information about the characteristics that the problem in the different sectors of the population and assumes a regional and national scope is the first priority.
The proposal would be left with empty analysis if it is not put within the context of the historic, social, economic and psychological situation in which the Mexican population lives. An analysis of the social inequalities present in Mexico to due to add an understanding of the context from which statistics about crime and perceptions of violence are generated and nourished.
Poverty gives origin to the social inequality and is one of the main causes of social violence. It is for that reason that in the beginning of our research, we conducted two tests on the relationship between poverty and violence, that will be used to at the national and regional level.
The poverty study was made in the Great Coast of Guerrero, since it is one of the zones in all the Mexican Republic with higher indices of marginality, where we analyzed the well-being index, of marginality, population and the index of infantile mortality. The study that was conducted for 1990-1999 and has a projection for the year 2000.
The violence study was conducted in the state of Morelos by means of the Survey on Criminal Statistics and Perception of the Public Security since its also one of the states of the republic with more criminal indicators. This survey was applied at the end of the last year and the first results present to us aspects of the criminal phenomenon until now inaccessible from the existing resources of intelligence.
The evaluation of the information generated by these two tests has allowed for scientific analysis and for interested sectors to develop joint proposals in which they foment the application of the strategies of greater analytical content and modify those whose results do not respond to the solution of the problem.
Our aim is to extend this research at national level (The Union Technical Committee of The National Survey on Criminal Statistics: PIIVIOS/UNAM, INEGI, DGPPC) by joining these two studies (poverty and violence) by means of Surveys to which specific modules can be added that deepen in some manifestation our understanding of violence and the social inequality in our country.
Finally it is necessary to never forget that: "a social fact that is not measured remains uncontrolled".
Rapporteur, Patricia Richards (Sociology)
A visiting scholar from Colombia addressed what he called the insensitivity of academics to the evolution of state institutions, noting that with the collapse of communism in 1989, the attention of countries like the US shifted away from problems within Latin American states (the armed forces in particular) and toward non-state actors such as international mafias. He concluded that academics should investigate how democratic state forms and policies can have negative consequences, as is seen with the emergence of paramilitary groups in Colombia.
Chris Berbeck observed that the two presenters focused on the experiences of crime in Latin America, and noted that it was also important to consider the social construction of crime, especially considering the title of this session. He suggested that researchers are participants in the social construction of crime. Thus, researchers need to be self-reflexive in the way they present crime, since we too may be reflecting insecurities and fears that exist in the wider society. For example, he noted that when we talk about the 'crisis' or 'explosion' in crime in Latin America, we are making a value judgement of sorts. In order to provide an image of crime that is useful to society, researchers have to be wary of exaggeration. As an example, he explained that in Venezuela, when asked, criminologists and citizens alike say that crime is increasing, when in reality it is sometimes not. Researchers thus have a responsibility to think theoretically about changing attitudes and conceptualizations of crime in order to provide the public with an accurate picture of what is going on.
Peter Ward added that society constructs an image of crime, noting as an example the myths about poverty and rising drug use. He posed the question: Who is constructing erroneous conceptions of crime and why? He later added that different theories, such as marginality theory in the 1960s, lead to certain policy solutions. He asked: How are current definitions of crime functional to the police and the state?
A UT radio, television, and film student cited a study conducted at UPENN that came up with what is known as the "scary world" hypothesis. This hypothesis suggests that when the media presents an image of inner cities as high crime and unsafe, people who live there agree that they feel frightened and unsafe, even when the reality is that crime is decreasing in their area. Later, in response to Manzanera's suggestion that the media constructs social reality, this student argued that the media both constructs and reflects social reality, but is in any case not the main cause of social violence.
Ignacio Caro noted that people's perception of crime is important, regardless of the actual rates. Feeling unsafe has a real impact on people's lives. He asserted that researchers need to improve the data available so people can respond to the actual reality.
Teresa Hernández addressed the issue of domestic violence in Perú, focusing on the image that some people have that it is on the rise. She pointed out that rising legal claims against abusers do not mean that domestic violence itself is increasing. Rather, increased efforts of women's groups to provide women with information about their rights to live free of domestic violence have led more women to feel comfortable speaking about it, and consequently more are willing to prosecute their batterers.
The session ended with a discussion of NGOs and international organizations that focus on public security and human rights issues. People often have more confidence in these groups than they do in the government. The question thus becomes how the state can regain the public trust. It was suggested that the state needs to work with these non-state actors in order to regain legitimacy with the public.
1 Nancy Cardia was unable to attend the workshop due to health problems, but graciously submitted her summary for inclusion in the memoria. This summary was edited by Corinne Davis. Most tables have been omitted. For a full version of the paper, please contact Dr. Cardia.
2 Summary edited by Corinne Davis. Dr. Jiménez’s presentation was given in Spanish. He has provided this summary in English. For the full paper in English or Spanish please contact Dr. Jiménez.