Violence in Rio de Janeiro: Styles of leisure, drug use, and trafficking

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to understand the connections between poverty and drug traffic at retail level, approaching the devices that provoked economic, social, and political changes in poor neighbourhoods. Although one should bear in mind the historical background of the economic, social, and political changes in which violence and drug traffic thrive, the paper focuses on the data obtained in several fieldwork researches, mainly the last one done from 1997 to 2000. The latter compares data on crimes and social indicators, interpreting them in the light of the ethnographical material about the styles of drug use and trafficking in three different districts of Rio de Janeiro: Copacabana, in the richest zone of the city; Tijuca, in a predominantly middle-class area; Madureira, in a predominantly poor section. It describes how young favelados are attracted to the dangers and virility ethos of a certain style of drug dealing in which many lose their lives.