Entre a proteção e a punição nas propostas de redução da idade penal no Brasil

Abstract

Discussions about violence in Brazil mobilize debates around a possible reduction of the penal age of young perpetrators of illegal acts, in a context crossed by political and strategic conflicts and the production of life government modes. This research aims to question the regimes of truth that support the proposition of reducing the penal age in the country. From the field of social psychology, we adopted the archeogenealogical analysis proposed by Michel Foucault and some of his theoretical and conceptual tools to problematize 37 proposals for a Constitutional Amendment presented by the Chamber of Deputies in Brazil between 1993 and 2013 in order to reduce the penal age. We organize the analysis of materials based on the construction of three analyzers: the first discusses how information technologies and mass media are now linked to the mental development of young people; the second discusses the punitive rationality that permeates the production of Constitutional Amendment; and the third examines how the documents deal with the Statute of Children and Adolescents. In the analyzer, we highlight how access to information is associated to an 'early' maturity of the young and the discernment of their actions. In the second analyzer, we address the controversies surrounding the reduction of the penal age: sometimes identified as necessary measure to decrease the levels of violence; sometimes considered as a strategy to combat impunity. The third analyzer indicates a series of disqualifications of the Statute of Child and Adolescent, that are organized in three axes of discussion: the subjective-psychological criteria; civil rights versus social rights; and ineffectiveness of practices guided by the Statute of Child and Adolescent.