Homicides in the city of São Paulo: mutations and tensions through the narratives of residents and professionals

Abstract

This article aims to describe the changes in the number of murders in the municipality of São Paulo (MSP) in the last few decades, along with the factors connected to those changes, through the point of view of residents and professionals. It focuses on the transition between high murders rates and its sharp decline observed after the 2000s. Therefore, this paper brings a qualitative study that tries to explore, through the narratives of locals from two São Paulo districts, Cidade Tiradentes and Jardim Ângela, the perceptions of different types of violence acts, especially the ones related to cases of homicide (and the increase or decrease movements of their rates), such as the connected factors and possible explanations to this scenario. In general, most of the interviewees notice, in their everyday life, the decrease in the number of assassinations (although this doesn’t mean the absence of tension), and they explain it with controversial arguments, mostly concerning improvements in life quality; community mobilization; police advances; and transformations in the acceptance of criminality.