This article proposes a reflection on the issue of safety/unsafety in France and Brazil. If on the one hand it may seem hard to draw parallels between social realities that are so different, on the other, it seems true that attempts at comparison may help to identify some convergences and point toward some common topics for an approach to this very complex social problem in both countries. In France as in Brazil, the question of safety has a visible presence in public debate and has become a political concern at different levels of government. Through a brief outline of the meaning of the phenomenon of violence in both countries, the discussion of debates on the French experience in the area of prevention and security and the Brazilian experience in the area of public safety and human rights, it becomes possible to construct some reflections on issues that are common to these very different social realities.
Violence; unsafety; safety policies; prevention; repression; democracy; human rights