Organização sequencial no cumprimento do mandato institucional em audiências preliminares no juizado especial criminal: uma análise da fala-em-interação em contexto legal

Abstract

This research aims to investigate the peculiar characteristics of the speech-in-interaction in preliminary hearings in the Special Criminal Court (JECrim), an organ of the Brazilian Judiciary that judges infractions of less offensive potential. In more specific terms, we seek to investigate the orientation towards the fulfillment of the institutional mandate (MAYNARD, 1984), to analyze the reception to the participants' verbal contributions and to identify the sequential organization of procedures characteristic of the institution. To this end, we use the Ethnomethodological Conversation Analysis approach (SACKS, SCHEGLOFF AND JEFFERSON, 2003[1974]; DREW; ATKINSON, 1979; HERITAGE, 1984), with a focus on studies of talk-in-interaction in institutional contexts (DREW; HERITAGE, 1992; CORONA, 2009). For analysis purposes, we also adopted tools from Interaction Sociolinguistics (GUMPERZ, 1982, 1999; GOFFMAN, 1979, 1981). The methodology is interpretative and qualitative in nature (DENZIN; LINCONL, 2006), and the data were transcribed according to the Jefferson model (LODER, 2008). The results of the analysis show that the actions taken by the representatives of the institution to meet the goal of the hearings are counseling, to get the parties to accept the agreement, and instructional actions about the criminal transaction and the next steps in the process. It was also identified that, although there is greater freedom regarding the allocation of turns in these institutional meetings, the professional of the institution has the mastery of both topical management and the organization of turn-taking. Finally, the results show that the professionals in the institution follow an organizational pattern of procedures in this legal context. In the initial phase of the meetings, legal explanations are given about the process in question, followed by the question of offering as to the penal transaction or the possibility of closing the case. After the client's response, there is a confirmation question, intended to formally record the client's decision. It is hoped that understanding the interactional conduct in preliminary hearings in JECrim will contribute to studies on institutional interactions in the Brazilian legal environment.