Os discursos sobre o feminino na questão penitenciária brasileira : uma análise a partir das relações de gênero

Abstract

The thesis presented has as topic of study the discourses about the feminine figure in the Brazilian’s penitentiary system, using the epistemological framework of Michel Foucault (2008) in order to accomplish the discourse analysis which was proposed. Therefore, the methodology used was based on documental analysis and bibliographic research. The thesis analysis was characterized in the political-normative instruments defined by the Brazilian State, which tries to guarantee rights to the women imprisoned. Also, a bibliographical research accompanied the study in order to elucidate how the first propositions of penitentiary policies destined to women of the 20th century were built. The thesis is based on theoretical references from critical criminology, feminist criminology and gender relations. The results obtained indicate that, even a century after the installation of prisons for women in Brazil, in discursive terms and normative concepts based on the gender relations, there are still regularities which indicates that women's criminal execution and the proposition of politics in such a context, is mediated by stereotypes and normative concepts around gender relations, whereby the female body is produced around motherhood. This is because, the documents analyzed indicate that women must have their specificities respected in the context of prison and also, joy of the appropriate conditions to their incarceration. If in the 20th century the specificities were defined through the discursive formations which built the imaginary for the criminal woman, as a crazy and failed mother, receiving as an appropriate punishment religious teachings by a religious congregation which was entrusted of this mission; In current discourses the specificity revolves around motherhood and the spaces defined as suitable for the imprisonment of women are those that must contain spaces for them to remain with their children. That said, the thesis is defending that the imprisoned women only acquires visibility before the public sphere, from its condition as potential mother.