Poor neighbourhoods as targets for mass incarceration: Notes on the Brazilian war on drugs

Abstract

This article analyses mass incarceration in Brazil and how the ongoing ‘war on drugs’ results in punitive dynamics involving the police and the judiciary, leading to the imprisonment of residents of poor neighbourhoods. I argue that the war on drugs intensifies the criminalisation of stigmatised and impoverished territories, extending beyond individual cases. In section 2, drawing on research from the United States and Brazil, I explore the key aspects of the spatial concentration of incarceration in both countries. In section 3, I focus on the specific dynamics of the war on drugs in Brazil, encompassing the shifts in drug policy, legislation, police tactics and the judiciary’s role in the prisonisation of specific social places. This article intends to bridge a theoretical gap in the study of spatial concentration of incarceration in Brazil, underscoring the relevance of understanding the complex relationship between prisons and marginalised communities within Brazilian cities.