Representation and action of the operators of the penal system in Rio de Janeiro

Abstract

Ideal and reality of the criminal justice system: Rio de Janeiro, a city without racism. It is to be understood why the media (and even scholars) can manage to speak and write about the peculiar violence of Rio de Janeiro and its “favelas” (slums), making no point of the desproportionate visibility of black people as perpetrators or victims. The article claims that racism plays an important role in the process, and that, probably due to the taken-forgranted assumption that Brazil is a racial democracy, public officers may discriminate black people withou even suspecting that they are doing so. The analysis is based on the different views of the problem, as perceived by “middle class” people on the one hand and by “poor” people on the other; and also on actual cases of racism taken to the criminal justice system. Concerning the “strategies of police intervention”, it seems clear, accounting for our distinctive hierarchical society, that any action should go far beyond the vicious circle of “organizational”measures, as is normally assumed to be the solution, and should respond to needs of a different nature. The starting point might be the militarist misconception of the police role that pervades law enforcement in Brazil, to the detriment of most of the Population, specially those marked by the colour of their skin (the focus being Rio de Janeiro). Themes like “police in a democracy”, “community policing”, “anti-discrimination” and the like might be of much help to law enforcement if put at issue with prominence.