Territory, race and state violence

notes on the (in)security society and necropolitics in Alagoas and Maceió

Abstract

Studies on state violence, based on concepts such as territory and race/racism, have gained increasing prominence in different academic and social fields. State violence is discussed from two specific categories: territory and its socio-territorial and racial implications. The aim of this article is to analyse how these categories work, specifically their relationship with state violence, given that violations of rights and repressive state actions are concentrated in certain peripheral and marginalized territories, and fall violently on non-white bodies. The hypothesis analyzed is that non-white bodies suffer more violence against life than white bodies, and that this issue is maintained when state violence is specifically considered, especially in socio-economically vulnerable regions. Data was collected from Alagoas and Maceió, from 2013 to 2023, from the SSP/AL on the CVLI, from the IBGE on demographic data and from the Atlas Brasil portal on the HDI. It should be noted that the profile of the victims is very well defined: they are men, young people aged between 15 and 29, black and brown, whose main instrument for committing crimes is a firearm and the main crime is homicide, followed by police lethality. Specifically with regard to police lethality, the neighborhoods with the lowest human development indicators had the highest number of victims of state repression.