A cegueira deliberada e sua aplicabilidade nos crimes contra a Administração Pública

Abstract

The Theory of Deliberate Blindness - also known as Theory of Ostrich Instructions or Theory of Conscious Ignorance - is a legal doctrine originated from Anglo-Saxon Law in the nineteenth century. The purpose of this theory is to make it possible to criminalize agents who, in order to derive advantages, avoid the characterization of the subjective component of a crime, when they are placed in a situation of ignorance at a time prior to the consummation of the crime, they do not seek to dispel their ignorance of unlawful practices, even with well-founded reasons for doing so. In Brazil, since the first use of this institute in the case of Robbery of Central Bank in the city of Fortaleza, magistrates routinely apply the Theory of Conscious Ignorance Act in the most diverse crimes, highlighting the problematic involved in the transplantation of a doctrine coming from the common law to the Brazilian Law, using a supposed equivalence or compatibility between so-called deliberate blindness and eventual deceit. This article, in turn, aims to define the concept of the Theory of Deliberate Blindness, as well as to evaluate the extent to which it has been applied by the Brazilian courts, especially regarding its use in legal proceedings in crimes against the Public Administration, questioning in the course of the work its possibilities and limits within the Brazilian penal system.