Habitus policial : uma análise sobre os processos de sujeição criminal e seletividade penal na polícia civil

Abstract

The criminal justice system is marked by the selectivity of the most vulnerable sections of society and since the 1988 Constitution, our police organizations have never undergone substantial reforms, preserving in their interior authoritarian and elitist characteristics. Based on this perspective, the present study aims to investigate what are the criteria adopted by police officers in the conduct of investigations and in the production of evidence during the investigation and to what extent these criteria imply social selectivity. It is also intended to investigate the implications that the police model adopted in Brazil infers on the criminal selectivity. The discussion is based on the concepts of labeling, tagging, stigma and criminal subjection, articulated in order to allow the reflection on the possible influences of the perceptions of police officers in conducting the investigations. The methodological path chosen was the conduction of a case study in a district police station in the city of Porto Alegre, accomplished through the application of semi-structured open-ended interviews, based on a previous script, and through ethnographic observation. This field was selected with the intention of carrying out a qualitative research to better understand how, in the police practice, are the interactions and the decision making processes that modulate the legal application to a factual reality. The results obtained point out that the choices are made directly by the police officers, without a clear and objective institutional guideline, which provides a dirigisme in the investigations, based on the perceptions of each agent, as well as by a police habitus. This habitus is structured mainly on historical and institutional issues related to chauvinism, racism, social and urban segregation and a legal culture based on dissent and punishment. We also observed that the registry and bureaucratic model adopted by the police in Brazil directly influences the increase of agents’ discretion, giving rise to arbitrary decisions. There is little control over these actions, which generates an unequal application of criminal law, going against what is expected of a democratic rule of law.