Tragedy and transformation: the PCC and homicide curves in the Triangulo Mineiro/MG

• Grant number: 20/13521-2
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: April 01, 2021
• End date: January 31, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Sociology - Urban Sociology
• Principal Investigator: Gabriel de Santis Feltran
• Grantee: Thalia Giovanna Marques de Sousa
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 21/14606-4 - If you want peace, prepare for war: the regulation of violence between the PCC, the police and the markets in the Triangulo Mineiro, Brazil, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

Since the early 2000s, ethnographic literature on the "world of crime" in Brazil has announced the hegemony of the PCC (Primeiro Comando da Capital, or First Command of the Capital) in the state of São Paulo, the cradle of the faction. This literature suggested the direct implication of this hegemony, in the context of expanding incarceration, in reducing homicide rates in the state. In Minas Gerais, the expansion of the PCC also significantly changed criminal dynamics. However, considering the plasticity inherent to the faction's organization, which allows it to mold itself according to each context, and the different criminal configurations already existing in the places to which it expands, my research question is: what is the relationship between the fluctuation of homicide rates in the Triangulo Mineiro and the presence of the PCC in the region? The objective of this project, therefore, is to verify how the expansion of the PCC to the Triangulo Mineiro - MG impacts the homicide rates in the region. We will study comparatively three municipalities: Uberlandia, Uberaba and Araguari, comparing the fluctuation of local homicide rates to qualitative data on homicide dynamics in the localities, obtained in ethnography (virtual and in-person), interviews and analysis of detailed reports on serial homicides. (AU)