This article points out some aspects of the Brazilian's response to the urban violence, focusing both official policies of public security and civil society's actions. Identifies a lack on the national policy of public security, indicates successful governmental experiences carried out on some states and counties, and concentrates on the Police's actions. Analyzing the responses of the civil society, points out the experience of the Campaign for Disarmament and the role of the media. The paper shows the rising of groups of young people living in the favelas that became organized around cultural experiences that, in multiple aspects, characterize them as "new mediators" in the society. Those groups talk about violence and try to build new stereotypes that disassociate them from the criminal type. The article describes, in particular, the cases of the Grupo Cultural AfroReggae, from Rio de Janeiro, and the pilotexperience experienced with Minas Gerais State Military Police, called Project Youth and Police. The grupo AfroReggae is typically a "new mediator" and the initiative to carry out a work with the Police shows new perspectives in the traditional low profile participation of the civil organizations related to public security and projects of cooperation with the Police.
Violence; Youth; Civil Society; Social Movements; Favelas