Citizens of Fear

Urban Violence in Latin America
Herausgeber: Rotker, Susana

• Broschiertes Buch

Produktbeschreibung

This new series presents innovative titles pertaining to human origins, evolution, and behavior from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Subject areas include but are not limited to biological and physical anthropology, prehistoric archaeology, evolutionary psychology, behavioral ecology, and evolutionary biology. The series volumes will be of interest primarily to students and scholars in these fields. Citizens in Latin American cities live in constant fear, amidst some of the most dangerous conditions on earth. In that vast region, 140 million people die violently each year, and one out of three citizens have been directly or indirectly victimized by violence. In Venezuela, adults are on average targets of crime seventeen crimes in their lifetimes, four of which are violent. In Mexico, 97 percent of all reported crimes go unpunished. Crime, in effect, is an undeclared war. Citizens of Fear, in part, assembles survey results of social scientists who document the pervasiveness of violence. But the numbers tell only part of the story. Other contributors present moving testimonials by the victimized and by journalists covering the scene. A third group of essayists explores the implications of the resulting fear for both thought and behavior. As Susana Rotker writes, "The city has been transformed into a space of vulnerability and danger. . . . What I am interested in narrating here is . . . the generalized sensation of insecurity that taints the Latin American capitals, the sensation that has changed the ways people relate to urban space, to other human beings, to the state, and to the very concept of citizenship".

Produktdetails

• Verlag: Rutgers University Press
• Seitenzahl: 280
• Erscheinungstermin: 1. Januar 2002
• Englisch
• Abmessung: 232mm x 149mm x 18mm
• Gewicht: 454g
• ISBN-13: 9780813530352
• ISBN-10: 0813530350
• Artikelnr.: 21108097

Autorenporträt

SUSAN ROTKER was a professor in the Spanish department at Rutgers University. She is the author of The Memoirs of Fray Servando Teresa de Mier and The American Chronicles of Jose Marti: Journalism and Modernity in Spanish America. She died in 2000, shortly after completing her work on this book.

Inhaltsangabe

Preface
Acknowledgments
Introduction
Cities Written by Violence: An Introduction
The Fears
The City: Between Fear and the Media
The Facts
Urban Violence in Latin America and the Caribbean: Dimensions,
Explanations, Actions
Colombia: Toward an Institutional Collapse?
Terror and Violence in Mexican Political Culture at the End of the
Twentieth Century
Democracy, Citizenship, and Violence in Venezuela
Youth Crime in Sao Paulo: Myths, Images, and Facts
The Stories
A Small Mistake (chronicle)
Ciudad Bolivar: Brush Strokes against Death (chronicle)
The Drive-by Victim (chronicle)
The Attitude
State Violence in Brazil: The Professional Morality of Torturers
The Impact of Exposure to Violence in Sao Paulo: Accepting Violence or
Continuing Horror?
The Imaginaries
The Social Construction of Fear: Urban Narratives and Practices
Imaginaries and Narratives of Prison Violence
We are the Others
Citizenship and Urban Violence: Nightmares in the Open Air
References
Contributors