Social Representations of Violence

Abstract

The   article   presents   results   of   a   research   done   on   social representations  of  violence  and  types  of  violence  produced  by different social sectors in the district of Itaquera, in São Paulo City. The  main  objective  of  the  study  was  to  identify  possible  differences in  the  social  representations  of  violence  and  types  of  violence emerging  from  different  social  segments.  The  study  was  based  on the  theory  of  Social  Representations  by  Serge   Moscovici  and identified  important  differences  among  the  groups.  The  conceptof Human  Security  by  Amatya  Sen  was  used  as  an  alternative  to  face the phenomenon of violence. Focus groups were to collect data.