How does our understanding of security change when we refl ect on it from the perspective of crime off ender, and within the space where the security apparatus assumes a vital importance—the prison? Based on ethnographic data from 12 prison facilities in Portugal, in this article I discuss vernacular notions of security from the perspective of male and female inmates. My aim is to bring to the forefront of the Anthropology of Security research the experiences, practices, and discourses of actors that so far have been excluded from the crime-security nexus debate.

I wish to thank João Pina Cabral for his comments and insights while I was writing this article.

crime,ethnography,imprisonment,justice,security

• Anthropology - Social Sciences

This publication is an output of the following project(s):

• Human security in prison: perspectives, subjectivities and experiences - a contribution to the anthropology of security

This publication is associated with the following references in the media record(s):

• Degradação das prisões (CNN)
•  Onde falha um sistema prisional que permite fugas? (Observador)