PLACE AND CRIMINALITY

GEOGRAPHICAL READINGS OF NEWSPAPERS FROM SALVADOR CITY

Abstract

The analysis concerning criminality at/of the places, by printed media, have produced a reflection about the representations of space and spaces of representation in Salvador metropolis. The data used in the analysis were extracted from the newspapers A Tarde and Correio da Bahia, in the year of 2009, involving the following data: types of violence, location’s occurrence of crimes and characterizations of theirs victims. The results have demonstrated the recognition of heterogeneous places in Salvador metropolis, but without producing analysis of the contradictions experienced in such spaces. The description about violent acts, locations and peoples, often, were copied from reports from the Police. The heterogeneous places when not detailed and not interrelated with contexts experienced in the metropolis, solidified the representations of spaces and reduces, for example, the problem of violence to the simple aspect of criminality. The present article defenses that, the study of place needs the deepening of life space articulated whit conceived and perceived spaces, something already considered important by journalists, but practiced by few, in the writing process of news about violence in Brazil.