Dealing with violent death: the performance of the civil servants of the department of criminalistics of the general institute of forensics of Rio Grande do Sul
Keywords:
Death, Violence, Fear, Forensics, EthnographyAbstract
The purpose of the ethnography-based research I have developed at the Department of Criminalistics (DC) of the General Institute of Forensics (IGP) of Rio Grande do Sul, from 2007 to 2010, was to understand the ways of dealing with a daily routine that involves professional familiarity with violent death. The techniques selected for data collection include interviews and simple and participant observation. The analysis of the field results follows the dictates of ethnographic studies as it approaches the interlocutions among the emic view, the ethic view and the theorists referred. The theoretical framework about death is supported by the studies of DaMatta (1987), Ariès (2000), Elias (2001) and Bauman (2008). Elias (2001) sustains that death in contemporary times has been separated into two spheres: individual and social. The individual approach imposes a distancing from the dying people, while the social approach deals with death as being part of the social life backstage. In the case of the DC civil servants, the conscience of death and violence is dealt with: by an emphasis on the afterlife, the world of the souls; through deconstruction, uncovering the causes of violent death via the search for truth using scientific methods and techniques; by trivialization, where the victim’s body is seen as an “object” or a “doll”; by the laughter and black humor; facing the confrontation of a violent death in the personal sphere through the professional performance that demands that the person be face to face with this reality. The works of Marta et al. (2009), Combinato and Queiroz (2006), Brêtas, Oliveira and Yanagutu (2006) show that the subjects they investigated have not been educated to deal with death in the work sphere. The same situation has been found among the DC civil servants, being that Kovács’ educational proposition (2005) applies to the case in question. The contribution of this research to organizational studies consists of calling attention to a topic that is little discussed in the area, as well as emphasizing how important it is for organizations to find coping mechanisms for those who deal with violent death as a daily routine.
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