13/04/2020
Urban Violence in Brazil in XXI Century
(Written by: Wlamir Motta Campos, 2005)
There is no doubt that the biggest social problem of this country, in the last years, has been the huge increase of violence and the failure of the Federal Government in providing security to the society. We will present data here that will illustrate of an objective and clear manner the true picture of lack of security that hangs on our country. For incredible that it can seem, in the last 20 years the number of murders in our country has increased 237%; recent research published by United Nations indicated that every year 40,000 people lose its lives in Brazil being victims of the violence, this all represent 11% of the victims of violence of the planet. According of data from the World Healthy Organization (WHO), Brazil registers the second biggest tax of mortality for aggression of the world, being behind only of Colombia, a nation involved more than 30 years in a civil war. Despite these astonished numbers, Brazil has in average a policeman for each 304 inhabitants, comparable index to the one of European democracies and to the one of the United States, our effective force counts with 535.244 policemen, including the Federal Government policies (military, civilian and body of firemen) and federal (traffic and federal). However, the Brazilian police is not distributed in an uniform way at its domestic territory, for instance, five federal states concentrates 55% from the effective total force, i.e., the states of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Minas Gerais, Bahia and Rio Grande do Sul. The lack of security of the common citizen has promoted and stimulated the sprouting of thousand of new companies of private security. In the year 2000, the registers of the Federal Policy have indicated the existence of 1.368 firms and already in 2002, these numbers have increased to 2,920 firms. In these companies were working 833,361 security guards, in other words, there were more 60% of particular security guards than policemen in our country; knowing that this amount is not counting the figures of the clandestine companies. The National System of Weapons presents 2.276.517 registered weapons; its distribution, however, according to other sources, in Brazil, is quite different: it has 937,263 registered weapons in the State of Rio Grande do Sul (9,2 for each 100 inhabitants), 495,947 in São Paulo (1,3 for each 100 inhabitants) and 493,343 in Rio de Janeiro (3,4 for each 100 inhabitants), if we add these numbers we will achieve the number of 1.926.553 weapons, in other words, 3.1 for each 100 inhabitants, consequently, keeping this average, it would approximately exist, in the country, about 5,0 million fi****ms. The Report of the Graduate Institute of International Studies of Geneva shows that it has 550 million fi****ms of small transport in the world, of this total 55% belong to population and 41% are in the hands of the security agencies of Federal States. To illustrate this, I can quote that 4,3 million weapons are produced in the world annually, being 200 thousand just in Brazil. Today a great debate in the society takes place on the use or not of the Armed Forces for the combat against urban violence; thus it is important to emphasize that these are permanent institutions, organized on the basis of the hierarchy and discipline and they have as its main mission the defense of the national sovereignty, to guarantee the powers of the Brazilian Constitution and, when requested, in emergency situations, also the maintenance of the law and the order. The Armed Forces do not have the police's power, i.e., they do not have to be used in functions of public security or in combating the social movements and also to the organized crime, even because they do not possess armaments nor training for action in urban areas, therefore, we should never confuse the concepts of public security and national defence. In Brazil, the Army possesses an effective force of 202.993 militaries, the Aeronautics of 65.043, and the Navy of 61.067. In a traditionalistic view, the function of the Federal Government is to give “security” (of Latin secure means "without fear") to its citizens, guaranteeing to them physical and moral protection, i.e., reflection of a pacific and harmonious living among the individuals. Under this aspect, the concept of public security is linked to police's power, and the public order being assimilated to the internal order of the group. With the advent of the called Rule of Law, the police's power has suffered limitations, but the Welfare State made to resurge “the security” worried about all the areas of the human being life, in a national and international spectrum levels. The police's power, that has incorporated social values, became the following definition: "administrative activity of the Federal Government that has the goal to limit and to condition the individual exercise of freedoms and rights, aiming to assure, in a capable level to preserve the public order and the attendance of minimum values of the social living, mainly the security, the salubrity, the honor and the aesthetic" (NETO, 1998:71). It was molded and refined, therefore, a new concept of public security. Amongst some point of views, it was firmed as consensus "absence of disturbance and harmonious disposal of the social relations" (NETO, 1998:71). Then, public security was appraised as the guarantee of the internal public order, in other words, public security would be the guarantee given from the Federal Government to anyone for a social living together, where no exists a threat of violence, allowing to all the joy of its rights assured for the Constitution, by means of the exercise of police's power. As a consequence of police’s action, the number of prisoners also grows in a rapidly way and on the other hand, the capacity of the prison system has not increased enough to absorb this contingent which is excluded of the society. In June, 2003, in our country was registered 284,989 prisoners; nowadays this number exceeds 340,000 and yet occur that 77,774 prisoners are held in police stations, while they would have to be in penitentiaries. The deficit of vacancies inside the Brazilian prison system is of more than 100,000 vacancies. Unfortunately, the Federal Government reached, in the last year, only the disposal of 3,900 new vacancies. This situation is not showing a flourish perspective. Click here to read full article Written by: Wlamir Motta Campos, Legislative Consultant, Specialist in Management of Public Policies in the areas of Public Security and National Defense. e-mail: [email protected]
https://www.security.co.za/news/81
