Family members of victims of police lethality and the justice system: a complex relationship

Abstract

The project proposes a comprehensive analysis of (i) the strategies used by family members-victims of police killings in their search for justice and (ii) the relationship they establish with the justice system. Therefore, this proposal aims at describing the paths taken and the choices made by people who lost loved ones in police actions and who thus come into contact with the justice system. Through the qualitative methodology known as "multiple case studies", we seek to understand how relations are established between justice system are established, especially in relation to the judicial processes established after the deaths. The study of the processes and the dynamics between these actors seeks to produce original results regarding both the strategies of the families - eventually together with social organizations - and the and the functioning of the justice system itself during these interactions. Besides documentary analysis of the cases, the research will mobilize semi-directed interviews with "victim-family "and ethnographically inspired participant observation of both procedural moments and the activity of social movements of both procedural moments and the activity of social movements.