Seeing Guns to See Urban Violence: Racial Inequality & Neighborhood Context

Guns are central to the comprehension of the racial inequalities in neighborhood violence. This may sound simple when presented so plainly. However, its significance derives from the limited consideration that the neighborhood research paradigm has given guns: they are typically conceived of as a background condition of disadvantaged neighborhoods where violence is concentrated. Instead, I argue that guns belong at the forefront of neighborhood analyses of violence. Employing the logic and language of the ecological approach, I maintain that guns must be considered as mechanisms of neighborhood violence, with the unequal distribution of guns serving as a critical link between neighborhood structural conditions and rates of violence. Furthermore, I make the case that American gun policy should be understood as a set of macrostructural forces that represent a historic and persistent source of disadvantage in poor Black neighborhoods.

The impacts on the mental health of residents of 16 favelas observed during the coronavirus pandemic in Brazil

The COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil has caused a scenario of extreme social vulnerability, with high unemployment rates and severe cuts to social benefits and policies. Aims: analyze the impacts of the pandemic on the mental health and quality of life on people living in contexts of high-levels of armed and lethal violence and social fragility. Methods: A longitudinal cohort study was undertaken with a convenient sample of fifty individuals who live in 16 favelas in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The interviews included enquired about the respondent’s capacity to cope with the pandemic and their access to services as well as questions about mental health (Brief Symptoms Inventory), and Quality of Life (Manchester Short Assessment of Quality of Life). Results: The results revealed a decrease in the somatization dimension of the BSI scale and a worsening on the objective index (SIX) of quality of life. Mental health distress increased more in the male group when compared to the female group during the COVID-19 pandemic. It seems likely; therefore, the COVID-19 pandemic presents a major challenge for people living in a context of urban violence and social deprivation. Conclusions: The worsening of mental distress and quality of life during the pandemic impacts both genders and suggests the need for policies directed to health and employment protection.

“Medida socioeducativa é cadeia”: percepções de jovens em semiliberdade sobre violência, sociabilidade, mobilidade e educação em Campos dos Goytacazes

O presente artigo tem o objetivo de investigar as relações entre violência, sociabilidade, mobilidade e educação em Campos dos Goytacazes a partir da experiência de adolescentes cumprindo medida socioeducativa. O artigo apresenta reflexões sobre como a violência impacta na forma pela qual jovens em semiliberdade se movem por diferentes territórios urbanos e se relacionam com a cidade e a escola. O texto está estruturado em cinco partes. Na primeira, apresentamos o projeto de pesquisa e extensão, que deu origem ao presente trabalho, apontando como ele pode ser pensado como um exercício de antropologia pública. Na segunda seção, discutimos brevemente como a “violência urbana” em Campos dos Goytacazes pode ser associada a conflitos territoriais relacionados ao comércio varejista de drogas na cidade. Na terceira seção, apresentamos o Centro de Recursos Integrados de Atendimento ao Adolescente, onde realizados a pesquisa. Em seguida, apresentamos as percepções que os próprios jovens têm do CRIAAD e do sistema socioeducativo. Na quinta seção, a partir da descrição de cenas etnográficas, debatemos as dificuldades de jovens em semiliberdade de se moverem pela cidade devido às dinâmicas associadas à violência urbana e, consequentemente, de acessarem a escola.Palavras-chave: Violência. Antropologia Pública. Sociabilidade. Mobilidade. Educação. “Socio-educational measure is prison”: perceptions of young people in semi-freedom about violence, sociability, mobility and education in Campos dos Goytacazes Abstract: The paper aims to investigate the relationship between violence, sociability, mobility and education in Campos dos Goytacazes based on the experience of adolescents that are under socio-educational measures. The article presents reflections on how violence impacts the way young people in semi-freedom move through different urban territories and relate to the city and the school. The article is structured in four parts. In the first, we present the research and extension project that gave rise to this work, pointing out how it can be thought of as an exercise in public anthropology. In the second section, we briefly discuss how “urban violence” in Campos dos Goytacazes can be associated with territorial conflicts related to the drug trade in the city. In the third section, we present the Integrated Resource Center for Assistance to Adolescents, where we carried out the research. Then, we present the perceptions that young people themselves have of CRIAAD and the socio-educational system. In the fifth section, based on the description of ethnographic scenes, we discuss the difficulties of young people who are fulfilling the socio-educational measure of semi-freedom to move around the city due to the dynamics associated with urban violence and, consequently, to access school.Keywords: Violence. Public Anthropology. Sociability. Mobility. Education.

Geografia, violência, segurança e saúde - reflexões sobre a contribuição das unidades de polícia pacificadora (UPP) do rio janeiro à saúde da população

Questões relacionadas com a violência urbana afetam diretamente as condições de saúde da população, produzindo distúrbios mentais como o medo e a loucura, desigualdades sócio-espaciais, inutilização dos espaços públicos de lazer e em determinadas situações a morte. O objetivo deste trabalho, a partir de uma revisão bibliográfica, é refletir sobre a ação da Secretaria de Segurança Pública em criar as Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora (UPP), espacialmente distribuídas na cidade do Rio de Janeiro, e sua possível conexão com a atenuação da violência urbana, bem como na saúde da população. Conclui-se que as Unidades de Polícia Pacificadora, ainda em estágio de implantação e adequação, geram um sentimento de segurança, conforto e bem-estar para a população, haja vista a redução no número de crimes e delitos entre os anos de 2009 e 2010. Issues related to urban violence directly affect the health conditions of the population, producing mental disorders such as fear and madness, socio-spatial inequalities, disabling public spaces for leisure and, in certain situations, death. The objective of this work, based on a literature review, is to reflect on the action of the Public Security Secretariat in creating the Pacifying Police Units (UPP), spatially distributed in the city of Rio de Janeiro, and its possible connection with the attenuation of urban violence, as well as in the health of the population. It is concluded that the Pacifying Police Units, still at the stage of implementation and adaptation, generate a feeling of security, comfort and well-being for the population, given the reduction in the number of crimes and offenses between 2009 and 2010.

African Americans in Cincinnati

African Americans in Cincinnati have played a vital role in the history of the “Queen City.” Struggles for racial equality, social justice, and economic opportunities have taken place in the city’s streets, homes, churches, schools, governments, and workplaces, and these efforts been woven into every fabric of Cincinnati’s rich historical tapestry. However, until recently, the role of African Americans in the region’s history remained largely neglected by most scholars and writers. Without question, African Americans in Cincinnati have played a vital role in the history of the Queen City.” Their struggles for racial equality, social justice, and economic opportunities have taken place and continue to take place in the city’s streets, homes, churches, schools, governments and workplaces. The trials and tribulations started a few years after Ohio became a state in 1802 with the enactment of the Black Laws (Codes) and the subsequent decades of urban violence, open discrimination, and legal segregation, continued into well into the 1950s. However, during these decades, despite the oppressive social climate, African American Cincinnatians made great strides in the fields of education, politics, and business. But the struggles continue today in areas such as police and community relations, access to quality public education, and urban renewal (gentrification).

Concentration of Urban Violence in Fortaleza and Strategies for Crime Prevention

Despite the continued prevalence of violence in Latin America, there is a relative dearth of research investigating both spatial patterns of violent crimes and the effectiveness of evidence-based crime prevention policies in Brazil. This study aims to address this gap in extant knowledge by creating a Spatial Violence Index and a Restrictive Ambient Index to investigate the spatial dynamics of violent crimes and urban vulnerabilities in Fortaleza. Both exploratory spatial data analysis and spatial regression models were employed to visualize the associative patterns and measure the correlation between the two indexes. The results demonstrate how locations characterized by high levels of violence are spatially correlated with more vulnerable locations in terms of both socio-economic-demographics and urban disorder. Overall, the study identified 124 vulnerable micro-territories that would benefit from the allocation of resources in an effort to reduce violence in the city by enhancing the efficiency of policing and prevention strategies.

Securing the Levantine Empire

The chapter traces the struggle of British military authorities to secure their grip over the cities they occupied. New legal measures and security institutions were developed to combat the challenges emanating from the permeable, connected character of the Levantine city. Martial law and military police forces, however, proved insufficient to suppress anti-imperial movements, while their institutionalisation advanced the militarizing, anglicizing tendencies of military rule that further alienated local partners who were relied on for the functioning of this informal empire. The chapter shows how escalating urban and extra-urban violence resulted in the major retrenchment and retreat of British military forces in 1922 and 1923, bringing to an end the distinct Levantine empire that had bound these cities together over the preceding years

Violence as a Subject of Social Science I The Specificity of Political Violence

In contrast to the world's uniformity all types of violence are observed: urban violence, in poor countries where conflicts are incomprehensible from outside, violence which surface is religious in countries of Muslim tradition, fundamentalist violence, nationalist, racist; violence in the world system which accepts the growing difference between poor and rich. Judiciary violence in executions in States that seem the principal warrantors of social peace. There is violence throughout the globe and under surveillance by the great power. It could be said that the global system tolerates a certain “reserve of violence” and obtains certain profits, as well as the economy tolerates certain extent of “unemployment rate” able to calm protest movements.