Ben Penglase

Loyola University Chicago | LUC · Department of Anthropology

This article re-examines ethnographic research I conducted on violence and insecurity in a favela in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It examines how the ethnographic strategies I chose – both methodologically and representationally – were shaped by different forms of violence. Contrasting a spectacular incident of violence, where a drug-dealer shot a perso...

The term “favelas,” which originated in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, refers to an underserved and unofficial urban neighborhood. Favelas are often characterized by exclusion from a formal urban infrastructure, social marginalization, unofficial landownership, and a distinctive self‐built architectural form. Since the 1980s, favelas have been associated...

This essay examines the confluence of sport, spectacle and security in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, by juxtaposing scandals involving two football players, Vagner Love and Adriano, with policies attempting to secure Rio de Janeiro in advance of the 2014 World Cup and 2016 Olympics, especially the favela “pacification” policy. The scandals involving Vagn...

The residents of Caxambu, a squatter neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, live in a state of insecurity as they face urban violence. Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela examines how inequality, racism, drug trafficking, police brutality, and gang activities affect the daily lives of the people of Caxambu. Although the favela is often seen as a...

The residents of Caxambu, a squatter neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, live in a state of insecurity as they face urban violence. Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela examines how inequality, racism, drug trafficking, police brutality, and gang activities affect the daily lives of the people of Caxambu. Some Brazilians see these communities,...

This chapter examines the effect of police practices on the lives of the residents of a poor neighborhood (favela) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Scholars examining police practices in Brazil have generally focused on more extreme forms of policing, particularly on the high rates of civilians killed by the police (Caldeira, Chapter 4). But it is also i...

This article contrasts how stray bullets are spoken about by residents of a poor neighborhood in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with how they are depicted in the media and by residents of wealthier neighborhoods. In order to examine the role that stray bullets play in cultural constructions of violence and insecurity, it uses the theory of fetishism to an...

This article examines how drug traffickers in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, use a gendered ideology of masculine authority to structure their relationships with residents of the city's favelas (squatter neighborhoods). It shows how gendered notions of "respect" provide traffickers with a useful way to legitimate their influence, naturalizing inequality,...

This article analyzes how drug traffickers and police in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, co-participate in the creation of a state of (in)security in the city's poor neighborhoods. I draw on ethnographic research to argue that drug traffickers dominate Rio's favelas (squatter neighborhoods) by producing everyday emergencies (or “ordered disorder”) and by d...

Robert Gay's book Lúcia: Testimonies of a Brazilian Drug Dealer's Woman provides a compelling and often heart-rending look into the life of one woman caught up in drug dealing, violence, police corruption and urban crime in Rio de Janeiro. Given the wealth of testimonial literature from other parts of Latin America, and the near canonical status of...

Este artigo apresenta um análise do surgimento e da evolução do Comando Vermelho, uma organização de tráfico de drogas nas favelas do Rio de Janeiro. Baseando-se em pesquisa etnográfica numa favela do Rio, o artigo mostra o impacto que o crescimento do tráfico de drogas teve sobre a vida dos moradores das favelas do Rio, produzindo novos pa...

This article examines Brazilian media reports on two incidents in Rio de Janeiro in the 1990s, arguing that reports on these events were turning points in the emergence of a discourse of crime that has come to shape how residents of Rio de Janeiro understand and experience violence. Newspaper and magazine articles on a 1992 beachside mugging incide...

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Harvard University, 2002. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 411-422).