Tueurs à gages et conflits interpersonnels dans le Brésil urbain : d'anciennes pratiques reconsidérées

In present-day societies inter-personal conflicts assume many different configurations. The contexts in which confrontation and resolution take place are multiple, while, at the same time, the number of professional killers is increasing. Homicides related to the practice of resorting to gunmen are found in political campaigns, unrequited love situations, family feuds, « suspected » persons, etc. A planned murder involves two persons : the gunman who commits the crime and the interested party who pays the gunman for the criminal act. This article analyses these practices and endeavors to understand the changes and continuity in contemporary urban society. The articles divulged by the press and interviews with people directly or indirectly involved in the cases reveal changes in gunmen’s practices and their links with the social interaction in the urban world. We demonstrate that not only the hired killers and their sponsors are changing but so are the victims. These changes are shaping this practice into a kind of diffuse violence which basically results in a growing number of people resorting to the use of professional killers.