Unjust society, violent society
The main type of violence people in poor neighborhoods speak of is not the one Medias picture when speaking about urban violence. The violence from the society itself is highlighted first, before the phenomena of delinquency. Racism, violence in the labor market, the frustrations due to their living environment, are the pains that pervade all violent societies.
The roots of the evil are primarily social: employment and labor are considered strong integrative elements, in such a way that the unemployed is devalued and denied dignity. He lives most of the time in a disadvantaged neighborhood, in a place of relegation.
The consumerist model used in our society is also a source of violence. The conspicuous display of certain products through advertising and the values of a society that intentionally creates a hierarchy and attributes recognition based on things people possess, are a real permanent detonator: how can one reconcile these dominant values with the precarious situations in which people find themselves in these neighborhoods? The contrast between the symbols of high status and the lack of means of those people are just untenable. Violence is then the only resort against this symbolic violence of our economic system.
And the blame for such situation goes to the media, for they broadcast these symbols of belongingness and an aestheticism of violence that some are tempted to reproduce in reality.
Residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods suffer every moment from an insidious devaluation of the oppressive environment they live in. The disappearance of public services, the lack of space, the inadequate public transports and the pollution are all seen as dampers where antisocial behavior is easily developed. In this environment left to its own, relationships between neighbors can be marked by a high degree of tension.
Parallel to this social violence, the people in these neighborhoods do not fail to denounce the institutional