Abstract

NAIFF, Luciene Alves Miguez  and  NAIFF, Denis Giovani Monteiro. The slum and its dwellers: guilties or victms? Social representations in times os violence. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2005, vol.5, n.2, pp. 107-119. ISSN 1808-4281.

Favela shanty towns, their rules, codes and residents are favoured objects of study because they are increasingly associated with the violence portrayed in information broadcast by the media. Using the theory of social representations we seek here to investigate how members of the lower middle class perceive present-day violence, favelas and their residents. The data were gathered using the free-evocation method and analysis was assisted by EVOC software. The results pointed to an adverse, shifting perception that increasingly relates favelas and their residents with the major causes of violence in Rio de Janeiro. Social representations linking poverty with criminality can lead to the adoption of positions and behaviours that reinforce prejudice and exclusion against favela residents, thus enhancing feelings of not belonging and of denial among this portion of the population.

Keywords : Social representations; Slum residents; Violence.

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