Testemunha de crime, a vítima do acaso: paradoxos do Programa de Proteção à Testemunha Ameaçada

Abstract

The present study investigates the Witness Protection Program – PROVITA. The study analyses the impact caused by the Witness Protection Program in the subjectivity of the witnesses and the ideology that governs the Program. Different information sources such as the study of documents, interviews and participant observation were used to analyze the contents in this particular universe. The research corpus was put together and analyzed under the point of view of the theories that inform the Program, namely the Etnomethodology. Since the study has sociologic connotations, this researcher used Weber and Gramsci as references for the discussion of bureaucratic rationality and the role of the State as central tenets of the Program. Freudian psychoanalysis was used to discuss aspects related to subjectivity. The conclusion is that the PROVITA claims to have a Human Rights public policy to protect and socially re-insert threatened witnesses. However, the Program presents paradoxes that compromise the efficiency and results of its actions and, ultimately, victimizes the witnesses it should protect.