Urban slaughters in the city and Metropolitan Region of São Paulo (2009-2020)

Abstract

This article analyzes the slaughters that occurred in São Paulo and its Metropolitan Region between 2009 and 2020. Using data extracted from news and interviews with journalists and public security agents, the article provides a socio-spatial analysis, highlighting features of the victimizations, perpetrators, and modus operandi of that form of extermination. Deaths resulting from slaughters reveal a polysemy of urban conflicts, predominantly linked to disputes over power, “political commodities” (Misse, 2014), and acts of revenge between criminal groups, or between public security agents and these groups. Peripheral populations are the main victims of slaughters, which occur in their places of residence and socialization and disclose power relations in these territories.

slaughters; homicides; peripheries; institutional acts of revenge; genocide