Center for the Study of Violence

 

The Center for the Study of Violence (NEV-USP) is one of the Research Support Centers (NAP) of the Research Office of the University of São Paulo (PRP-USP), headquartered at the Faculty of Philosophy, Languages and Human Sciences (FFLCH/USP). Since 1987, the NEV-USP has been conducting research and training scholars by way of an interdisciplinary approach to the debate on violence, democracy, and human rights.

During its nearly 30 years of existence, the NEV-USP has developed a series of research projects and extension courses funded by the Ford Foundation, Rockefeller Foundation, Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), International Committee of the Red Cross, CNPq, and FAPESP, in addition to partnerships with UN agencies (WHO-PAHO, UNDP), European Union, Ministries of Health and Justice, Special Secretariat of Human Rights, São Paulo State Secretariat of Justice, among others.

The overarching issues that have guided research at the NEV-USP involve the complex relationship between the persistence of violence and human rights violations in the course of the Brazilian democratic consolidation process. “What type of democracy exists and develops within a context of severe rights violations, organized crime, corruption, impunity, limited civil rights, and frail support for a culture of human rights?”, “How do the existing obstacles affect the implementation of laws?” and more recently “How does an inadequate enforcement of laws influence the legitimacy of institutions that are crucial for democracy?” are some of these questions that the NEV has sought to answer.

Such complex issues call for the contribution of multiple fields of knowledge. The NEV counts on the collaboration of researchers from different scholarly backgrounds (sociology, psychology, political science, law, anthropology, statistics, history, public health, etc.), as well as a wide range of research methods, including archival analysis, surveys, interviews, observations, geo-referencing, etc.

As part of its institutional mission, the NEV-USP currently hosts a FAPESP Research, Innovation and Dissemination Center (CEPID) under the research program ‘Building Democracy Daily: Human Rights, Violence and Institutional Trust’ (2013-Present), which hopes to promote and expand studies on the legitimacy of key institutions for democracy as well as how this legitimacy is shaped in the citizens’ everyday experience with public services. Together with the research program, the CEPID project also foresees initiatives for the diffusion and transfer of knowledge, as well as educational and human resources training activities.

In addition to the CEPID program, the NEV also belongs to research networks. It has been a Collaborating Center of the World Health Organization since 2004, where it participates in forums and research projects for violence prevention.

 

RESULTS OF RESEARCH CONDUCTED AT THE CENTER: