Sign-In
Cart
Weaponized Policing: Police Violence in São Paulo and La
Paperback
CriminologyGeneral SociologySocial Movements
ISBN13: 9781479807468
Publisher: New York University Press
Published: Sep 1 2026
Pages: 232
Weight: 0.79
Height: 0.90 Width: 5.90 Depth: 8.90
Language: English
How police reproduce social, spatial, and racial inequalities in two global cities
From Donald Trump to Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro, political leaders endorsing law and order--specifically through aggressive policing strategies-- have supported the formation of carceral states in self-proclaimed democracies. In Weaponized Policing, Sebastián Sclofsky provides a comparative lens on this dynamic, taking a look at police-civilian violence in the United States and Brazil, and its impact on people's understanding of race, space, and citizenship.
The book argues that the socio-economic transformations of the last half-century, marked by the rise of neoliberal capitalism, have produced extreme levels of inequality, and created new forms of vulnerability that are managed and reproduced by police. The pacifying processes conducted by the police in their production and reproduction of social order produce the categories of black, poor, and periphery, transforming these subjects into the ultimate other against whom police intervention and violence is deemed necessary and justified for the sake of the city's well-being.
Drawing on hundreds of interviews with politicians, police officers, community activists, and low-income residents of São Paulo's periphery and neighborhoods in South L.A., Sclofsky follows the stories of individuals who live, and are policed, on the peripheries. He argues that, in both countries, aggressive policing creates authoritarian enclaves within faulty democracies. As a result, residents of color are criminalized, individual rights are systematically violated, and a sense of second-class citizenship is developed--even when people live in a country where political rights are supposedly guaranteed, and free and fair elections do take place.
Also in
Criminology
Boy with a Knife: A Story of Murder, Remorse, and a Prisoner's Fight for Justice
Trounstine, Jean
Paperback
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Hardcover
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast
Colloff, Pamela
Hardcover
Unreasonable Women: Three Stories of Violence, Imprisonment, and Extraordinary Survival
Van Der Leun, Justine
Hardcover
Face to Face with Whitey Bulger: An FBI Agent's Account of Capturing and Debriefing Boston's Most Notorious Gangster
Teahan, Rich
Ward, Bob
Paperback
The Price of Mercy: Unfair Trials, a Violent System, and a Public Defender's Search for Justice in America
Galvin Almanza, Emily
Hardcover
Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice (Large Print Edition)
Giuffre, Virginia Roberts
Paperback
Searching for Jane Crow: Black Women and Mass Incarceration in America from the Auction Block to the Cell Block
Leflouria, Talitha L.
Hardcover
One in Five: Why Child Sexual Abuse Is Our Biggest Public Health Crisis--And What We Can Do to Stop It
Malone, Luke
Letourneau, Elizabeth J.
Hardcover
Crime Fictions: How Racist Lies Built a System of Mass Wrongful Conviction
Gonzalez Van Cleve, Nicole
Hardcover
The Deserving: What the Lives of the Condemned Reveal about American Justice
Vartkessian, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Catch the Devil: A True Story of Murder, Deception, and Injustice on the Gulf Coast (Large Print Edition)
Colloff, Pamela
Paperback
How to Close a Camp: Dispatches from the Fight Against Immigrant Detention
Washington, John
Paperback
Fumbling Towards Repair: A Workbook for Community Accountability Facilitators
Hassan, Shira
Kaba, Mariame
Paperback
How to Survive a Murder Investigation: A True Story of Death and Danger in the Ozarks
Townsend, Catherine
Hardcover
If I Am Coming to Your Town, Something Terrible Has Happened: The Life and Times of a Domestic War Correspondent
Glawe, Justin
Paperback
The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 1]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.
Paperback
Don't Fight Back: And 10 Other Myths about Crime, Personal Safety, and Gender-Based Violence
Stone, Meg
Paperback
Starvation Heights: A True Story of Murder and Malice in the Woods of the Pacific Northwest
Olsen, Gregg
Paperback
Without Consent: A Landmark Trial and the Decades-Long Struggle to Make Spousal Rape a Crime
Weinman, Sarah
Hardcover
Making Things Right: Activities that Teach Restorative Justice, Conflict Resolution, Mediation, and Discipline That Restores Includes 32 De
Claassen, Roxanne Harvin
Claassen, Ron
Paperback
Bone Valley: A True Story of Injustice and Redemption in the Heart of Florida
King, Gilbert
Hardcover
Zodiac: The Shocking True Story of the Hunt for the Nation's Most Elusive Serial Killer
Graysmith, Robert
Paperback
The Sun Does Shine: How I Found Life, Freedom, and Justice
Hinton, Anthony Ray
Hardin, Lara Love
Paperback
The Best Part of Prison: The Power of Second Chances and Reclaiming Life Out of Darkness
Crosson, Jesse
Paperback
No Visible Bruises: What We Don't Know about Domestic Violence Can Kill Us
Snyder, Rachel Louise
Paperback
Stitching Freedom: A True Story of Injustice, Defiance, and Hope in Angola Prison
Tyler, Gary
Hardcover
Every Man: Why Violence Against Women Is a Men's Issue, and How You Can Make a Difference
Katz, Jackson
Paperback
The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 2]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.
Paperback
Marked by Time: How Social Change Has Transformed Crime and the Life Trajectories of Young Americans
Sampson, Robert J.
Hardcover
Vida Y Muerte del Cartel de Medellín / Life and Death of the Medellin Cartel
Lehder, Carlos
Paperback
Bookin' in the Big House: What I Learned Leading a Women's Prison Book Club
Devoto, Pat Cunningham
Paperback
The Gulag Archipelago [Volume 3]: An Experiment in Literary Investigation
Solzhenitsyn, Aleksandr I.
Paperback
A Murderer's Guide to Cleaning: And Other Stories from My Life as a Probation Officer
Baxter, Elizabeth
Hardcover
Playing the Victim: How the Powerful Deny and Attack Survivors of Violence, from Domestic Abuse to Genocide
Cheung, Kylie
Paperback
The Faithful Executioner: Life and Death, Honor and Shame in the Turbulent Sixteenth Century
Harrington, Joel F.
Paperback
From the War on Poverty to the War on Crime: The Making of Mass Incarceration in America
Hinton, Elizabeth
Paperback
The Black Hand: The Epic War Between a Brilliant Detective and the Deadliest Secret Society in American History
Talty, Stephan
Paperback
Little Book of Conflict Transformation: Clear Articulation of the Guiding Principles by a Pioneer in the Field
Lederach, John
Paperback
Prisoners of the Castle: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison
MacIntyre, Ben
Paperback
Immigration Detention Inc.: The Big Business of Locking Up Migrants in America
Conlon, Deirdre
Hiemstra, Nancy
Paperback
Altamont: The Rolling Stones, the Hells Angels, and the Inside Story of Rock's Darkest Day
Selvin, Joel
Paperback
Un Himno a la Vida. Mi Historia / A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides
Pelicot, Gisèle
Paperback
Healing the Gun Violence Epidemic: Ending Violence, Rebuilding Communities, and a Trauma Surgeon's Vision for Restoring Hope
Rogers, Selwyn O.
Paperback
Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prison
Yusuf, Aishatu R.
Soble, Leslie
Busansky, Alex
Paperback
Bulletproof--Healing After Gun Violence & Trauma: A Guide for Survivors, Caregivers, and Clinicians
McMahon, Jill
Paperback
Liberty's Prison: The Inmate's Son Who Radically Reformed an American Prison
Graf, Christine
Liberty, Randall
Hardcover
The Big Book of Restorative Justice: Four Classic Justice & Peacebuilding Books in One Volume
Pranis, Kay
Zehr, Howard
MacRae, Allan
Paperback
On the Wrong Side: How Universities Protect Perpetrators and Betray Survivors of Sexual Violence
Bedera, Nicole
Hardcover
We Wish to Inform You That Tomorrow We Will Be Killed with Our Families: Stories from Rwanda
Gourevitch, Philip
Paperback
In Guns We Trust: The Unholy Trinity of White Evangelicals, Politics, and Firearms
Kole, William J.
Hardcover
The Anatomy of Motive: The Fbi's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals
Olshaker, Mark
Douglas, John E.
Paperback
Highway of Tears: A True Story of Racism, Indifference, and the Pursuit of Justice for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls
McDiarmid, Jessica
Paperback
Blood in the Water (Pulitzer Prize Winner): The Attica Prison Uprising of 1971 and Its Legacy
Thompson, Heather Ann
Paperback
The Third Rainbow Girl: The Long Life of a Double Murder in Appalachia
Eisenberg, Emma Copley
Paperback
When Lambs Become Wolves: The Chilling Case of Sheila Von Wiese-Mack
Freelain, Rasul T., (Ret ).
Paperback
Police Against the Movement: The Sabotage of the Civil Rights Struggle and the Activists Who Fought Back
Davis, Joshua Clark
Hardcover
Zodiac: The Shocking True Story of the Hunt for the Nation's Most Elusive Serial Killer
Graysmith, Robert
Paperback
The Coroner's Silence: Death Records and the Hidden Victims of Police Violence
Keel, Terence
Hardcover
Marching Powder: A True Story of Friendship, Cocaine, and South America's Strangest Jail
McFadden, Thomas
Young, Rusty
Paperback
American Murder Houses: A Coast-To-Coast Tour of the Most Notorious Houses of Homicide
Lehto, Steve
Paperback
G-Dog and the Homeboys: Father Greg Boyle and the Gangs of East Los Angeles
Fremon, Celeste
Paperback
Be Good to Your Body: Getting Back to God's Design in a World of Wellness Trends, Quick Fixes, and Conflicting Health Advice
Dooley, Jordan Lee
Hardcover
Exploring Crime Analysis: Readings on Essential Skills, Fourth Edition
Int'l Assoc of Crime Analysts
Paperback
Halfway Home: Race, Punishment, and the Afterlife of Mass Incarceration
Miller, Reuben Jonathan
Paperback
Broken Windows Behind Bars: Transforming Jail Operations Through Order and Accountability
Klucznik, Shaun
Paperback
No Right to Remain Silent: What We've Learned from the Tragedy at Virginia Tech
Roy, Lucinda
Paperback
Deadly Force Encounters, Second Edition: Cops and Citizens Defending Themselves and Others
Artwohl, Alexis
Christensen, Loren W.
Paperback
La Chica de Nadie: Mi Historia de Supervivencia Y Lucha Por La Justicia / Nobody's Girl: A Memoir of Surviving Abuse and Fighting for Justice
Roberts Giuffre, Virginia
Paperback
She Said: Breaking the Sexual Harassment Story That Helped Ignite a Movement
Kantor, Jodi
Twohey, Megan
Paperback
Dead Man Walking: The Eyewitness Account of the Death Penalty That Sparked a National Debate
Prejean, Helen
Paperback
The Anatomy of Motive: The Fbi's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals
Douglas, John E.
Olshaker, Mark
Paperback