From incivilities to school violence

causes and dynamics in Campinas based on cases recorded by the São Paulo Public Prosecutor's Office

Abstract

The article analyzes the causes and dynamics of school violence on the basis of an unprecedented empirical dataset of 179 proceedings recorded by the Public Prosecutor's Office of the State of São Paulo (MPSP) in the municipality of Campinas. The research fills a long-standing gap in the national literature, which relies predominantly on perception questionnaires, by accessing the materiality of police incident reports and juvenile offense proceedings. Part of the Égide Project (FAPESP 2023/10005-1), the study argues that school violence results from the escalation of unregulated everyday incivilities and that serious episodes rarely arise as isolated ruptures. The reports were coded by type of offense, victim, location, sex, neighborhood and relational antecedent. In the 159 incidents in schools, most physical assaults (35 of 54) and threats (23 of 34) have an identifiable antecedent (provocations, nicknames, harassment and insults). Two patterns predominate: against educators, violence arises from the student's reaction to acts of authority; among peers, it follows repeated harassment not interrupted by the school, with a strong presence of the digital environment and discriminatory content against girls. By empirically testing the theses of French sociology, the article examines the legal framing of these conflicts (contempt of a public official, juvenile offense and systematic intimidation) and concludes that policies centered on the ostensive surveillance of the Égide Program are insufficient, requiring pedagogical governance of the school climate, the guarantee of protected listening (Law No. 13,431/2017) and the institutionalization of ethical and democratic coexistence grounded in conflict mediation.