Banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO: ROCHESTER OLIVEIRA ARAUJO

Uma banca de QUALIFICAÇÃO de DOUTORADO foi cadastrada pelo programa.
STUDENT : ROCHESTER OLIVEIRA ARAUJO
DATE: 15/12/2025
TIME: 14:00
LOCAL: IPP/UFRN
TITLE:

THE VALUE OF JUDICIAL PUNITIVISM: THE EXPANSION AND GAINS OF THE JUSTICE SYSTEM IN THE LEGITIMIZING FUNCTION OF PUBLIC SECURITY MEASURES THROUGH THE EXERCISE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE

KEY WORDS:

Justice system; Judiciary; Mass incarceration; Punitivism; Public security policies.

PAGES: 71
BIG AREA: Ciências Sociais Aplicadas
AREA: Planejamento Urbano e Regional
SUMMARY:

This study examines the relationship between the expansion of power within the Brazilian justice system and the phenomenon of mass incarceration over the past two decades. Considering that Brazil’s prevailing model for addressing urban violence relies on penal repression, intensive policing, and the expanded use of imprisonment, the Judiciary emerges as a permanent actor responsible for legitimizing, controlling, and sustaining this arrangement. In doing so, it departs from the constitutional logic of exceptional intervention in public policy. The research hypothesizes that the justice system constitutes a political elite characterized by conservative traits and by an institutional plasticity that enables it to continuously renew its position of power. This elite benefits both politically and materially from the punitive model, which contributes to its lenience toward mass incarceration and reinforces its centrality in the public agenda. To develop this analysis, the study investigates the historical formation of the Judiciary, its political role across different periods, its contemporary composition and characteristics, and the operation of punitive power as a technology of domination through the lens of critical criminology, seeking to identify how this form of control relates to the material and political gains derived from such a position. Methodologically, the research acknowledges the challenges inherent in studying actors situated hierarchically above the observer, requiring an analytical shift that allows the Judiciary to be understood as a political actor rather than a merely technical body. The study is structured around five specific objectives: (a) to describe the justice system’s composition as an elite; (b) to analyze punitivism and mass incarceration in Brazil; (c) to discuss the judicial role in legitimizing public security policies; (d) to identify the structural and budgetary expansion of the justice system; and (e) to relate this expansion to the advancement of punitivism and the growth of the prison population. Ultimately, the research seeks to understand the role played by the Judiciary in consolidating Brazil’s penal model and its implications for the phenomenon of mass incarceration.

COMMITTEE MEMBERS:
Presidente - 1014897 - CLAUDIO ROBERTO DE JESUS
Interno - 1012850 - RODRIGO FIGUEIREDO SUASSUNA
Externo à Instituição - JOSÉ LUIZ DE AMORIM RATTON JÚNIOR - UFPE