1. Local Gangs and Leaders
1.1. gangs function as the form of justice and have ultimate jurisdiction over local affairs in a complex and thoroughly penetrative manner
1.2. Considered by citizens to be an important condition of an impoverished community
1.2.1. Gang members who decide to join are making clearheaded evaluation of their own situation and deciding to be employed in the space offering the most dignity
1.2.2. Carry out cycles of revenge that many citizens consider to be important especially considering the unusually high death rate of young men in the favelas
1.3. Carry out traditional functions (drug trade) but also resolve domestic disputes, lend money and mitigate contact with the police
1.3.1. Provides legal and moral justification for police to use excessive force
1.3.1.1. many police organize and participate in death squads during their "off" hours
1.3.2. "protect the favela" from outside force and invasion by others with desire to deal or battle with guns
1.4. Drug chiefs are important local figures; homegrown, locally based and provide badly needed services
1.4.1. Have a more sympathetic public profile than the police
1.4.2. Considered to be exceptional earners and a role model for youth (boys) in the favelas
2. History of Lulu and Ivo
2.1. Ivo, one of the founding fathers of the favela; cooperative with corrupt police; murdered by Lulu the corrupt police chief
2.2. Lulu, police terrorist of the favela who extorted and eventually murdered Ivo; shot a dog and drank its blood to show people in the favela that he was not to be crossed
2.2.1. Katy Mahoney, his sister, also a long time police officer that would confront and address the bandido problem in Felicidade Eterna
2.3. Spawned a pattern of society with parallel power between police corruption and gang protection.
2.3.1. Police come around to collect corruption money; gang pays police off so that they may continue upholding their jurisdictional power over the favela -- the people are better serve by the gangs
3. Favela Codes of Conduct
3.1. whole families are responsible for the actions of their members, and lives may be taken to account for the trespasses of someone else
3.2. Expulsion and murder are the most frequent consequences
3.3. players in the justice system have become hybridized into "police-bandits" -- the poor see the police as colluding with criminals and the police see the poor as criminals. (pg 188)
3.3.1. Police officers hold off administering "real" justice until their off hours when they are not in uniform
3.4. Matters Under Gang Jurisdiction
3.4.1. Sexual Abuse
3.4.2. Adultery
3.4.3. Gun Control
3.4.4. Petty Theft
3.4.5. Abusive and Adulterous Husbands
3.4.6. Rape of a Child
4. Alternative Justice Systems
4.1. Pervasive cultural patterns that associates order and authority with the use of violence
4.2. Gangs provide a parallel justice system and an alternative to the rule of law because the consensus is that the state is corrupt; gangs are seen as necessary
4.2.1. "Good police action" fall into this category of alternative rule but they are unreliable.
4.2.2. Gangs are necessary to right the wrongs of everyday life, that perhaps do not fall under the rule of law, or which are too cumbersome to be addressed by the formal legal system
4.2.3. State is incapable of addressing serious social problems like livable wages, unemployment, lack of health care, high death rate, violence and overwhelming poverty. Gangs address the symptoms of this issue on a local level
4.2.3.1. gangs fill in wherever the state is absent
5. Female Oppositional Culture (i.e. religious practice)
5.1. Religion as a neutralizer: By dressing in clothes consistent with this lifestyle, women indicate that they are not potential targets; they relinquish "street life" as it may pertain to other members of their family.
5.1.1. They are "out of the game"
5.1.2. women have become targets by new concepts of the gang culture and require a method for differentiation
5.2. Religious practice as an alternative community of support: to women who have lost members the "the streets" and have very little to do with actual faith as much as having the communion of other individuals who have renounced street life
5.2.1. Allow women to distance themselves from gang culture and the men in their lives that disregard their inadvertent involvement by sheer virtue or relational affiliation
5.3. Religion as a tool for the salvation of loved ones: Prohibits drinking,, advocates moral redemtion, and still believes in honest work
5.3.1. Rise of evangelical religion, offers an alternative to deal with problems of domestic abuse and other "private" problems
6. Class Differences
6.1. "nurtured" versus "nurturing" children
6.1.1. Since home is the female domain, and most children are in single mother households they have to provide familial support
6.1.2. In poor households, children are an asset. Potential wage earners, assistance in parenting duties, household duties, etc.
6.1.3. At 15 children considered to be a fully grown adult, responsible for their actions and able to take care of themselves
6.1.4. Focus is on the "harsh world" on the outside; responsibility on parents to learn how to survive and how to make a living for themselves
6.2. Citizens will offer change to the poor to avoid being later assaulted
6.3. Psychotherapy is exclusively upper/middle class service because the most rigorous forms of repression are applied to upper classes
7. Reputation for "toughness" in childrearing is socially acceptable due to the extreme consequences of misbehavior
7.1. hope to discourage children from becoming "irredeemable criminals"
7.1.1. ultimate punishment is being thrown out into the streets
7.1.2. Children care for other children and mothers strive to keep the "larger peace" sometimes at the expense of others
7.2. Death Squads organized by police to exterminate misbehaving youth, legitimized by gang activity
7.2.1. Home punishments are cruel and unusual, as they mean hours of cleaning and work. These child abuses are still are comparatively kind.
7.3. ambivalence by upper and middle class society regarding systematic assassination of children
7.4. FEMALE children are open to sexual predation; not protected in FUNABEM or elsewhere
7.5. Street children so poor that they are embarrassed to go to school
8. "Honest Work"
8.1. Those of low class and background have little social mobility.
8.2. Most jobs available to low class workers are low paying, degrading and dead end.
8.3. Gang life becomes the most accessible alternative to youths by promising a livable wage, and economic power.
8.4. Cruelty to children in orphanages and disciplinary institutions foster contempt
8.5. Sole household earner is typically a single mother with several children, both hers and adopted to feed
9. Male Oppositional Culture (i.e. gangs)
9.1. suspicious of FUNABEM (juvenile institution) as children are becoming increasingly important in the discourse regarding gang behavior and violence
9.2. The streets are considered more egalitarian and permissive of individual opportunities and deviations from home life
9.2.1. Considered a betrayal of the home life
10. Institutional reinforcement
10.1. exacerbates criminalization of the poor
10.2. FUNABEM
10.2.1. Great for 3 months then children transferred to institution (orphanage) where authorities abused the children and held absolute power
10.3. Alternative to FUNABEM is "child shifting" whereby children are fostered by friends, family but always at the mercy of their will;
11. Crime and Violence in Rio
11.1. Rio is a city of high stratification. It is highly segregated to counteract and magnify crime
11.1.1. "stifling poverty, profound class inequities, alarming levels of domestic violence, naturalized racism"