Mulheres no tráfico de drogas: um estudo sobre a resposta do Sistema de Justiça Penal à criminalidade feminina

Abstract

Studies about the legal and judicial universe, focusing on the description and understanding of its structure and barriers have grown in recent years in Brazil. And although crime usually be interpreted as a male phenomenon, we observe a growing academic interest in female criminal agency, driven by the increase in the number of women in the prison system in the last decade, especially for involvement with drug trafficking. The objective of this work is to promote theoretical discussion on the possible influence of social representations of gender incorporated into the systems of guidelines and values of the magistrates in making the sentencing decision, as well as the nature and amount of penalties. The definition of the object of the research stems from the scarcity of studies on the role of Brazilians judges in decision process as well as the increase of women's participation in the crime statistics. The analysis of the elements that emerge as determinants in the decision by the judges involved elements defined in Brazilian law on narcotics and criminal procedure law. Empirical research undertakes an analysis of “sentencing” in cases of women involved in drug trafficking, focused on sentenced processes and questioning the explanatory variables of the decisions of the judicial authority in sentencing. Studies of “sentencing” focus on the analysis of decision making and disparities in criminal penalties, promoting the demystification of the idea of impartiality in making judgments to analyze the performance of judges, as well the sociohistorical, philosophical and legal variables incorporated in the process of rationalization of the decision, influencing your praxis and fostering a juridical culture able to apply different legal penalties for defendants that practice similar crimes. This theoretical perspective is presented as meaningful analytical tool in studies of sentencing, capable of providing conceptual elements applicable to the understanding of constraints directresses that involve adjudicative activity. We selected 39 (thirty-nine) sentences, handed down between 2007 and 2012, in 04 (four) Criminal Courts the Judicial District of Juiz de Fora. In these sentences, figured as accused for the crime of trafficking 49 (forty-nine) women, among which 03 (three) women appeared in 02 (two) different sentences in the time period studied, why were considered 52 (fifty-two) cases in accordance with the object of this work. In the analysis of the legal and extralegal criteria that inform the magistrates during the decision making process, a model of tradition in the civil law, we realize the membership of a guidance system marked by legal formalism, ready to be justified within a legalism, rather than a universalist stance of promoting material justice. As well the reproduction of a tacit criminal culture of conformity as to the rigor in the trial and sentencing for crimes under Brazilian Drug Law.