The city of São Paulo recorded high rates of homicide during the 1990s and 2000s. This phenomenon was deeply related with the high levels of urban crime in the late 1970s. In general, the violent crime studies emphasize the impact of unequal distribution of rights, the domain of organized crime, and the state's inability to enforce the law and maintain the order. However, there is a lack of literature on the violent crimes as result of interpersonal conflict. This master thesis proposes to move

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... from the macro level toward micro level of analysis, and change the focus from homicide studies into interpersonal conflict studies. The data used were criminal records of murders between 1991 and 1997, gathering in 16 police stations located in the North and West areas of São Paulo; it was selected 30 violent crimes committed in bars. This study also examined the legal understanding of banality. In recent years, certain media discourse has increased around "trivial reasons" of violent crimes. It was identified that the banal and futile concepts are manipulated in order to qualify acceptable types of sensibilities and social emotions involved in violent crimes. Lastly, it is examined how offenders, victims and witnesses justify the conflicts and the interpersonal violence outcomes. It was identified that the hostilities is consequence of quarrels or public challenges; it means the conflict arises as a way of setting limits and boundaries for the social authorities. As a result,in this scenariointerpersonal distrust seems to sustain the use of violence.