Policepersons: representing violence

Abstract

This article discusses about the social representations of violence created by police officers whose duty is to work in order to control and prevent violence, as well as to protect society from criminality. The work is based on the Social Representations Theory, which defines social representations as a collective knowledge that guides the social practices and the social relationships between people and groups. The data obtaneid through focal groups technique showed that the subjects involved in this research have elaborated a "theory", or social representations about violence, which may explain their own behaviour, which is, not rarely, violent in their attempt to fight against criminality.

violence; police officers; social representations