Through a comparison involving three decades, this article describes the historical context in which the faction emerges and expands itself in the Favela Nova Holanda, in the Complexo da Maré, Rio de Janeiro. By means of the categories of “neurosis” and “humility”, it presents the faction’s reference framework which gives intelligibility to their members’ life as war or peace, respectively. About such process, it argues that police operations, police raids with the “caveirões” – armored cars used by the military police –, and violent disputes between factions are becoming consolidated as the devices responsible for the expansion of the “world of crime”. In what comes to the criminal practices, the mediations known as desenrolos establish an interactive space in which (armed) force and argument frequently overlap and merge one another in the spectrum of the conflicts.
Conflicts; Complexo da Maré; Urban sociability; Criminal violence; Police violence