Punishment or Protection? The Relations Between the Justice System, CREAS, and the Guarantee of Rights
Social Assistance; CREAS; Justice System; Rights Protection
Social assistance policy in the Brazilian context represents a paradigmatic shift in the field of rights protection, establishing social assistance as a duty of the State and a right of those who need it. Organized within the Unified Social Assistance System (SUAS), this policy aims to provide social protection, overcome situations of rights violations, and strengthen individuals’ access to other public policies, requiring articulated and intersectoral action. In this context, the Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance (CREAS) occupies a strategic position in responding to situations of rights violations and in coordinating with the Justice System, a relationship that, although normatively established, materializes in a tension-filled manner in the daily routine of services. Grounded in historical-dialectical materialism and in the Marxist critique of law and the State, this study analyzes how the relationship between the Justice System and CREAS is configured through the requests submitted and the responses produced, as well as how these mediations affect socio-assistance work and the configuration of social assistance policy as a field of rights protection. This is a qualitative documentary study conducted in two CREAS units in a municipality in the state of Rio Grande do Norte, based on the analysis of 62 documents, consisting of 31 official requests issued by the Justice System and their corresponding 31 responses prepared by the technical teams. Preliminary results indicate that these requests place pressure on the foundations of the policy and directly affect socio-assistance work, which tends to reorganize itself in response to such demands.