Abstract
The aim of this paper was to analyze the mechanisms of non-state governance of violence in a poor community located in the south of the city of Recife, state of Pernambuco, based on ethnography and interviews conducted between 2018 and 2022. After verifying that there is no established armed regime with enforcement capable of imposing a criminal governance system, we found an informal scheme of non-state governance of violence led by actors who are not part of the criminal world. Finally, we state that the interventions of these actors do not have a significant impact on the reduction in the number of violent episodes but, at the same time, they succeed in deterring the use of force in certain situations, preventing violent crime from increasing.
informal governance; violence; poor neighborhoods; caretakers; social isolation