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Insecurity, Fear and Cruelty in Contemporary Urban Settings
The debate about violence, which is taking place in several cities across the world, acquires contemporary specificities either because of the growing number of cases of cruelty categorized as heinous crimes, or because of their unexpected widespread. The growth in the absolute number of cases entails other variables, such as fear and feeling of insecurity, which impose long-lasting effects in the social order, not to mention their difficult resolution. This paper seeks to reflect on questions that stand out in contemporary urban settings, intertwined with the issues of insecurity, fear and cruelty. In this perspective, the aim is to shed light on this topic based on core analytical standpoints: widespread violence, actions of intensity categorized as heinous or cruel, and new practices of sociability cross-cut by fear and the feeling of insecurity. For experts, the emerging challenge is to interpret the latest configuration of this phenomenon, which presents broad manifestations as well as practices identified as violent. This research is particularly based on debates taking place in Brazil and brings about ways to understand different aspects around the phenomenon.