Throughout Brazil, landless resisters are being violently victimized at the discretion of large landowners. The main goals of this article are to (1) Explain the historical and current conditions that have facilitated the violent oppression experienced by the landless movement, (2) illustrate the mass violence experienced by the landless population, (3) provide a review of the existing research regarding the relationship between land reform, violence, and state strength, (4) introduce a new explanation of decentralized state power in relationship to the persistence of violence against the landless movement. I explore the Brazilian landless movement through content analyses, fieldwork, and a review of existing data. The approach used to study and understand the powers associated with the landless movement is unique to the existing literature of the Brazilian landless movement in that it moves beyond advocacy towards a criminological and political analysis.