ABSTRACT
This essay discusses the loci operandi of violent events. To this end, it deals with the case of a police officer who killed the 16-year-old refugee Mouhamed Dram on August 8, 2022, in the backyard of a youth care facility in Dortmund-Nordstadt. It is striking that neighbors and journalists highlight this particular place to make sense of the shooting. Sociologically, it is a starting point to analyze the events in more detail. But to what extent is this spot, and its significance for those present, passing through, or looking on, noteworthy to explain the killing of Mouhamed Dram in sociological terms? By advancing the experiential space thesis, one finds a certain pattern of encounters and experiences in both the concrete place of the backyard and its urban surroundings. This pattern of self-similarity, defined by the keywords “arriving” and “being stopped,” persists across many encounters in the district, largely defining the location. Tragically, in the case of Mouhamed Dram, this pattern continued in the inner courtyard of a youth care facility, with deadly consequences. Theoretical consideration of self-similarity draws attention to the complexity of violence in everyday life, suggesting that violence is not easily defined but intricately tied to specific places.
