Pioneers: the PCC and specialization in the market of major robberies

Having studied sociality among robbers, mainly the pioneers of the PCC [Primeiro Comando da Capital, or First Command of the Capital], in Brazil, I argue individual entrepreneurship, contrary to popular belief, provides the foundation for major robberies of banks and other financial institutions in Brazil. Based on 18 years of research on robberies and robbers in Brazil, this paper explores the specialization of an illegal market, thus breaking, on the one hand, with the idea of “urban violence” as a lack of rules, civility and modernity, and, on the other hand, with pure economism. By establishing a dialogue with the Brazilian ethnographic literature on the crime universe, it examines how the PCC is strengthened even though its members are fiercely independent and work on the basis of short-term projects.