Organized Crime, Organized Punishment? State Violence and Prison Gang Governance in Urban Brazil

My research investigates the question of why some criminal groups institutionalize their punishment of civilians, while others use violence arbitrarily. The main case that I studied this summer was that of the Primeiro Comando da Capital (PCC), the prison gang turned international criminal organization that controls the drug trade in São Paulo. In addition to its profit seeking activities, the PCC manages a complex underground judicial system. This summer, I interviewed 15 people who had direct and prolonged exposure to this system. My main recommendation for others is to give overwhelming importance to the ethics of this kind of fieldwork. Not only is conducting ethical research a first-level duty of scholars, as well as a challenge, it is also the best way of building trust and credibility in communities that you hope to continue to study in the future. I will use my findings from this study to write my MA thesis in the Department of Political Science.