1. The document discusses violence in Brazil and its roots, comparing homicide rates to other countries experiencing conflict like Iraq and Angola. Over 1 million people have been killed in Brazil in the last 30 years. 2. It explores different philosophical perspectives on human nature, with some like Freud, Hobbes, Christianity, Judaism and Islam arguing humans have an inherent tendency toward evil, while others like Rogers, Rousseau, Marx, and Eastern religions believe society corrupts human nature. 3. It concludes that as long as extreme social injustice and lack of education persist in Brazil due to unchecked capitalism, the country will continue to experience high levels of violence and evil prevailing over good. Social justice and education are

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THE ROOTS OF VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL AND HOW TO COMBAT IT
Fernando Alcoforado *
The countless rebellions in penitentiaries that have taken place in Brazil have led the
federal and state governments to explain what happened as if they were the result of a
factional dispute over drug trafficking, seeking to cover up the inhumane prison
conditions where prisoners crowd into insufficient spaces that should be occupied by
half of the existing prisoners. This situation demonstrates the incompetence of the
governments that succeed in Brazil in the management of the penitentiary system and
public security in general and the long-delayed judicial system that shows a lack of
agility in the trial of detainees and thus avoid the increase of prisoners who multiply
every day with the advance of violence against people and property.
Increasingly, the media makes it explicit that Brazilian people are increasingly
vulnerable to violence, forcing him to see that it has invaded all areas of human life and
relationships in Brazil. It is evident the concern with the violence in the current
Brazilian society that manifests itself in organized crime, widespread corruption in the
various public agencies, assaults on citizens and banks, etc. Violence represents
everything that hurts, destroys, harms, or hurts people - actions that do not preserve life
but harm individual and collective well-being. We live in a country that has as one of its
main characteristics the violence practiced by man against his fellow men.
Over the past 30 years, homicide victims in Brazil have reached more than 1 million
people. Data are collected in 27 Federal Units, 33 Metropolitan Regions, 27 capitals and
5564 municipalities of the country, using information from the Ministry of Health,
Public Security, Notary Public, Police and other public agencies [See article Violência
no Brasil: pior que Iraque, Angola e Afeganistão (Violence in Brazil: worse than Iraq,
Angola And Afghanistan) available on the website
<http://blogdotas.terra.com.br/2011/12/28/violencia-no-brasil-pior-que-iraque-angola-
efeganistao/>].
To make clear the absurdity of the number of violent deaths in Brazil, it is enough to
compare it with other countries that live in an extreme situation like Angola, a country
in civil war for 27 years (550,000 victims, practically half of the victims here in the
same period). Other recent armed conflicts, such as in Iraq and Afghanistan, totaled
89,000 dead by 2007. That is, the war in Brazil is bloodier than in those already bloody
countries on the planet. Another important comparison is that of Brazil with the
Scandinavian countries which are reducing prisoners and prisons, while Brazil seeks to
increase the number of prisons.
Why the Netherlands and Sweden are closing prisons, while Brazil is increasing the
number of prisoners? Why is Norway low in recidivism, while are high rates in Brazil?
In countries where the number of prisoners is decreasing, this is because crime
reduction results from social welfare policies that provide social justice and access to
quality education for the whole population. In addition, the number of prisoners
decreases because there is a more comprehensive approach to the issue of drugs, the
application of alternative penalties, including for petty theft, for theft and non-serious
injuries, etc.
The education of human beings and the existence of social justice, antithesis of the
inhuman savage capitalist system in force in Brazil, are the weapons that can make the

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man behave constructively and be able to change the world around him and, in doing so
change him yourself. The fight against violence in Brazil should not be restricted to
police action, the creation of punitive criminal laws and the construction of
penitentiaries. Social justice and education are essential to combat violence in Brazil.
The perception of many people is that violence represents the predominance of the
animal instinct that human beings possess over the values of civilization. This would
explain the escalation of crime in all ages throughout the world. One of the most
important issues for the understanding of the human being and its various dimensions is
to understand its nature. Was man good or bad? A thesis held by some philosophers and
religious is that man would be viscerally evil, intrinsically perverse, and by nature
corrupt, while for others it is based on the conviction of man's natural goodness.
Freud emphasizes in his work the destructive aspects of man [See the article of Sonia
Maria Lima de Gusmão under the title A natureza humana segundo Freud e Rogers
(The human nature according to Freud and Rogers) available on the website
<http://www.rogeriana.com/sonia/natureza.htm>]. In this article, Sonia Gusmão says
that Carl Rogers presents an opposite view of Freud because he believes that it is
precisely in a coercive context where the individual cannot expand, or better, actualize
his potential, which makes him hostile or antisocial. Hobbes, for his part, has the central
thesis that man is the wolf of man himself. Hobbes tries to show that there can be no
society without government and without the sanctions of the laws [See the article of
Roger Trigg under the title A Natureza Humana em Hobbes (The Human Nature in
Hobbes) available on the website <http://qualia-esob.blogspot.com.br/2008 /03/nature-
human-in-hobbes.html>].
The central idea in Rousseau's thought is based on the conviction of the natural
goodness of man, and that the mishaps of socialization alienated man from himself by
throwing him against his fellow man [See Dalva's article by Fatima Fulgeri under the
title Conceito de natureza humana em Rousseau (Concept of Human Nature in
Rousseau) available on the website
<http://www.paradigmas.com.br/parad12/p12.6.htm>]. For Marx, in turn, human beings
are able to change the world around them and, in doing so, change themselves [See
article A Natureza do Homem Segundo Karl Marx (The Nature of Man According to
Karl Marx) available on the website <http: //nomosofia.blogspot .com / 2011/10 /
nature-of-man-second-karl-marx.html>].
Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Eastern Religions and Spiritism also address the issue of
human nature. As for Christianity, there is the affirmation that we are endowed by God
with free will and that the first impulse of our freedom is directed towards evil and sin,
that is, to the transgression of the divine laws, that we are weak, sinful beings, divided
between good (obedience to God) and evil (submission to demonic temptation).
Judaism, as well as Christianity, regards the violation of a divine command as a sin.
Judaism teaches that mankind is in a state of inclination to do evil and of inability to
choose good instead of evil. According to Judaism, man is responsible for sin because
he is endowed with a free will, however, he has a weak nature and a tendency to Evil,
because man is evil from his youth.
Islam believes that there will be the day of resurrection and judgment of good and evil.
On this great day, all the deeds of man, whether good or bad, will be put on the balance.
The Muslims who have acquired sufficient righteous and personal merit in favor of

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Allah will go to heaven; all the others will go to hell. Eastern religions defend the thesis
that, in general, human nature is originally good and that it has degenerated because of
ignorance, desires or obfuscated mind, which makes severe discipline necessary to
recover it original goodness. This is the main reason why Eastern ethics advocates
severe discipline in order to recover the original virtue of Man. Herein lies the Eastern
explanation of the appearance of evil which would be entirely the creation of Man.
Virtually all Indian religious systems, including Buddhism and Taoism in China,
attribute the appearance of evil to the ignorance of man, which gives rise to false
knowledge and pernicious desires. Eastern Philosophy considers that, since man
produces evil, he can also destroy it. Does Spiritism question how it is possible for man,
created in the image and likeness of God, to be viscerally evil? How is it understood
that the Supreme Architect of the Universe has produced works that are intrinsically
imperfect and defective? For spiritists, man is an unfinished work. The problem of evil,
according to Spiritism, is solved through the immense work of the education of Man
aiming to transform darkness into light, addiction to virtue, madness in common sense,
weakness in force. For the doctrine of spirits evil is the creation of man himself and has
no existence other than temporary, transient, because in the greater arrangement of Life
there is no sense in the permanence of evil.
From the foregoing, we find that Freud, Hobbes, Christianity, Judaism and Islam
converge in their thoughts when considering that the human being has a tendency
towards Evil which are opposed to those of Carl Rogers, Rousseau, Marx, Eastern
religions And Spiritism that defend the thesis that the society is that degenerates man
throwing it against other human beings. As long as there is the extreme social injustice
resulting from the dominant wild capitalism and the lack of access of the entire
population to quality education, Brazil will continue to live with extreme violence and
Evil prevailing over the Good.
* Fernando Alcoforado, member of the Bahia Academy of Education, an engineer and doctor in
Territorial Planning and Regional Development at the University of Barcelona, is a university professor
and consultant in the areas of strategic planning, business planning, regional planning and energy sy stems
planning.