Urban Violence Analysis

In order to better understand and analyze the context of urban violence, the phenomenon has been divided into four different categories: political, institutional, economic and social violence, even though they all eventually overlap. - Political violence in urban areas refers to all forms of violence whose manifestation expresses through guerrillas and paramilitary conflicts, through political assassinations or armed conflict between political parties. Its final goal is to win or maintain political power. - Institutional urban violence includes all sort of “abuse of power” on behalf of state institutions or even private sectors: police brutality; killings carried out by police outside of the boundaries of legality; the social

It can happen in a complicated and organized manner, referred to as organized crime, often related to drugs, kidnappings and arms trafficking. Economic violence tends to take any of the following main forms: Street theft, robbery and crime; Armed robbery; Kidnapping; Drug-trafficking; Dealing in small-arms; Killing and rape committed in the course of an economic crime type of assault; Human trafficking for prostitution; Conflict over scarce resources; The use of violence or intimidation to resolve economic disputes; Territorial or identity-based “turf” violence; robbery, theft, Petty theft. Economic violence is often also referred to as “street violence”, as it is most commonly perpetrated on the streets by gangs or children (both boys and girls), delinquents and robbers. - (TABLE 1)

Social violence can be understood as any of the following: Child abuse suffered by both girls and boys; Conflict between parents and children, known as Inter-generational conflict; The physical or psychological male-female abuse; Arguments getting out of control and resulting in violence; Incivility in traffic, road rage, street confrontations or bar fights; Gratuitous/routine daily violence; and of course Sexual violence (including rape) in the public arena and the physical and sexual abuse mostly perpetrated by stepfathers but also by uncles.

“Structural violence” should also be mentioned: violence is strictly related to the experience of fear, which is experienced

They become part of gangs, they create their new for of society, seen that the one they were born in, “our society”, did nothing to accept them, to integrate them, or even suggest that they could have a shot at a “better”, or just “different” life. (O silencio das missoes de paz).

From what information we have gathered until now, it can be easily deduced that violence is costly. First, it erodes financial capital: states or cities are forced to increase their budgets dedicated to justice-related services, such as police or security, as well as their health care expenses that are, intuitively enough, related to the higher number of physical injuries or psychological support needed as a consequence of increased violence. Because of such “insecure” and “unstable” situations, investment in certain areas can go down.

In turn, this has a strong impact on human capital costs: life expectancy decreases, victims of such violence tend to have fewer educational chances, and fear causes them to be less productive and more distracted while