Urban violence: a social problem

Abstract

This article contains some reflections on how social violence expresses itself. These reflections, presented in former moments as lectures, public debates and at a congress, have been gathered under the title of Urban Violence because they all try to comprehend everyday violence as a problem of urban society. Based on the lectures I have formulated the first part of this article, which deals with a conception taken from social anthropology: the characterization of violence in rural society under the perspective of structural marginality, in order to explain the genesis of this problem in the actual social class society. The debates, that took place because of traumatic happenings related to the police apparatus, have brought about a discussion of the causes of violence inherent to the performance of the institutional functions’ of military and civil police. The last part of this article is the result of my taking part in a congress organized in order to debate the new Brazilian Traffic Code. It takes into account the role and, particularly, the meaning of the social symbols divulged by the mass media as aspects responsible for the increment of traffic violence.