Laboratório de Análise da Violência

Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro PPCIS - Programa de Pós Graduação em Ciências Sociaisp

Mission

Created in 2002, the Laboratory for the Analysis of Violence (LAV) integrates the research line “violence and public policies” of the Postgraduate Program in Social Sciences, which deals with topics related to violence, crime and security, and contemplates current debates on public policies in several sectors such as youth, educational and penal systems as well as the defence of human rights.

Goals

The general objectives of LAV are the production of applied knowledge in the areas of Public Security, Violence and Crime, Justice and Human Rights, as well as the establishment of constant interactions with audiences internal and external to the university. In addition to the development of applied research, the Laboratory offers technical support to public agencies, NGOs and social movements, and organizes courses, events and seminars, as well as develops projects dealing with the formulation, application and evaluation of public policies.

LAV emerged with the intent to better articulate initiatives of research, supervision and training of students, and also initiatives of public participation in public debates and fora, all of them formerly developed individually by the founding professors. All of them had been carrying out research on the above mentioned topics for some years, with results widely recognized by the scientific community.

Among the main specific objectives of LAV, the following can be highlighted:

  1. Encouraging undergraduate and graduate students to do research in this area, providing them with conditions to carry them out;
  2. Creating a permanent space for dialogue and collaboration between various initiatives developed by other academic and social institutions, providing a favourable environment for debate, mainly through the organization of lectures and seminars and participation in the main fora;
  3. Organising public security training courses for students and security professionals;
  4. Setting up updated databases, and producing indicators necessary for research in the areas of Violence and Crime, Public Security, Justice and Human Rights;
  5. Generating synthetic indicators to monitor the evolution of violence, crime and public security;
  6. Monitoring and evaluating the impact of public policies in the area of ​​Security, Justice and Human Rights;
  7. Contributing with diagnoses and proposals to the improvement of security policies and to the guarantee of human rights in Rio de Janeiro and other urban areas in Latin America;
  8. Consolidating the Graduate Program in Social Sciences (PPCIS) and the Institute of Social Sciences at UERJ as reference centres and as partners of national and international institutions of research and of human rights monitoring.

LAV has diversified lines of action, whether in terms of research development, consultancies and technical support activities, organization of courses, seminars and guidance for undergraduate or graduate students. All of them aim to reach a diverse audience, composed of researchers, professors and students, the press, education and research institutions with an interest in the area, government agencies, international institutions and non-governmental organizations.