[pt] Diante do contexto globalizado da sociedade e da necessidade do controle social, o sistema penal exerce papel preponderante. A partir dos referenciais teóricos da economia política e da criminologia crítica à definição de categorias como criminalidade, exclusão social, violência, direitos humanos e acumulação de capital, objetiva-se compreender as implicações do fenômeno da violência, do ponto de vista do controle social e conflitos sociais, diante da lógica mercadológica propugnada pelo neoliberalismo. A hipótese central é no sentido de que as estratégias de poder tendem a implementar rigorosas políticas de segurança pública de perfil cada vez mais autoritário, tipicamente de combate e de exclusão, privatizando o controle social, explorando economicamente a violência. Utilizando-se da cultura do medo e contando com mecanismos de intervenção estatal, que não refletem ou não significam melhoria na garantia dos direitos fundamentais, mas atentam contra os mesmos, provocando efeitos em sentido inverso - mais violência e exclusão social, o controle social serve à reprodução e acumulação do capital através de conexões entre o fomento aos mecanismos de regulação, resolução dos conflitos sociais e às democracias de mercado. / [en] According to globalized context of the society and by the necessity of the social control, the penal system exercises the preponderant character. From he theoretical references of the economy policy and critical criminology in relation to the definition of categories such as criminality, social exclusion, violence, human rights and accumulation of capital, the aim is to understand the implications of the violence phenomenon from the point of view of social control and conflicts, and through the marketing logic advocated by the neoliberalism. The centra hypothesis is in the sense that the strategies of power tend to implement rigorous policies of public security with an increasing authoritarian profile, typically of combat and exclusion, privatizing the social control, exploring the economy of violence. It makes use of the culture of fear and counts on mechanisms of state intervention which do not reflect or do not mean improvements in the guarantee of the fundamental rights, but attempt against them, causing effects in the inverse direction - more violence and social exclusion, the social control serves to reproduction and accumulation of the capital through connections between the promotion to the regulation mechanisms, resolution of the social conflicts and the market democracies.

Fear is a challenge for European democracies today that is discussed in the same breath as rising populism and anti-immigrant speech. However, it seems that fear has also become a defining principle for Western (post)modern society in many other areas of life. This observation has been framed by the term culture of fear and described by recognized sociologists like Ulrich Beck, Zygmunt Bauman and Frank Furedi. They argue that changing social conditions like individualisation and globalisation have altered Western society’s preoccupation with security, uncertainty and risk. In consequence, Bauman and Furedi talk about a fear that has become “free-floating” and “liquid”. This research project asks about the implications of such a culture of fear for society and takes a closer look at what has been described as politics of fear. By conducting a critical political discourse analysis of the political talk show hart aber fair, this paper aims at tracing politics of fear in the German discourse over migration during the “refugee crisis” (2015-2017). In a three-tiered approach, the investigation embarks by defining culture of fear and its social premises, followed by a discussion of politics of fear theories drawing upon such concepts as precaution, prevention and securitisation. Emerging from this discussion, both a “traditional” politics with fear and a (post)modern politics of uncertainty are identified. The subsequent analysis of a selected hart aber fair episode from the 5th September 2016 bases on Siegfried Jäger’s approach to Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA) and examines the argumentation and interaction of the guests in the debate. The findings indicate that in addition to the use of fear as a political means for populist politicians, the narrative of the “fearful society” has on a whole permeated the German political discourse over migration. Hence, culture of fear offers a new perspective for the understanding of political discourse and the current developments in political practice.