The hazing machine: the shaping of Brazilian military police recruits

Abstract

This article deals with the hazing carried out when new recruits enter the Military Police Academy of Bahia, Brazil, and questions the implications for police identity and education. Using data collected from 31 interviews and academic materials written by the recruits, it interprets the abuses, games and punishments inflicted on the rookie recruits by their seniors, showing evidence of a differentiated and complementary meaning of this ritual for themselves and the institution. The article reveals the existence of a pact between the directing team and seniors for carrying out the hazing, and confirms results from studies on the role of rites involving the stripping of identity and the integration of the institution's new members. Hazing is also analyzed as a component of an informal, alternative, academic curriculum that undermines the new, official teaching curriculum. Hazing is seen as an example of dualistic logic in new police training, pointing to prospects of democratization while maintaining authoritarian methods of socialization. Finally, the article proposes replacing hazing with forms of collective celebration in order to help bring about the proposed curricular changes.