“Rusticus mundi”: violence and impunity in Porto Calvo, Alagoas (1950–2000)

Violence and impunity in Porto Calvo, Alagoas (1950-2000).

Abstract

This article is a reflection on violence and crime in Alagoas (Brazil) in the second half of the twentieth century. Analyzing the documentation of the Porto Calvo Forum from 1950 to 2000, we can see the existence of violent, rustic and institutionalized behavior maintained and reproduced not only in the cultural dynamics of male honor, but also in the forms of legal impunity and lack of social control. the region. This social reality directly confronts the imperative of the dynamics of the rule of law, since this historical social experience demonstrates a region that still resents a civilizing process and the legal monopoly of the use of violence as a form of social control.