Public Safety and Crime Prevention in Brazil
Public Safety as Defined by the Federal Constitution of 1988
Public safety is a duty of the State, a right and responsibility of all, and is exercised to preserve public order and the safety of persons and property. This is achieved through various bodies: the Federal Police, Federal Highway Police, Federal Railway Police, Civil Police, Military Police, and Military Fire Brigades.
Public Safety as a Public Service
Public service must consider the citizen as the recipient. Shack in the slums should be considered households, inviolable except in cases of founded suspicion or evidence. Respect for individual rights should be maintained, not considering all as enemies. Transparency in police institutions should be promoted, expanding social control over them, as well as implementing an overt strategy for social cohesion.
Symptoms of an undemocratic and inefficient safety design include the excessive use of force at the expense of priority investment in human capital, a focus on equipment and armaments with little planning, little concern about the qualification, working conditions, and welfare of professionals, low established channels of dialogue with civil society, and constant violations of rights that accompany actions, even legitimate ones, of crime repression.
The Dichotomy of Repression and Guarantee of Rights
Brazilian democracy has not yet guaranteed social peace while invoking the guarantee of rights. In democracies, public security must be linked to the guarantee of rights, which does not occur in Brazil. Freedom arising from this condition is necessary to build social cohesion. Public Safety, in its institutional field, has gained expression almost exclusively associated with repression, neglecting the guarantee of citizens’ rights.
The Interdisciplinary Nature of Public Safety
There is a difficulty in the interdisciplinary approach to public safety due to Brazil’s legal and police tradition, which views public safety as a problem primarily for lawyers and police (a military concept of security). Public security in Brazil remains an area with low penetration into other fields of knowledge, such as Social Sciences, Psychology, Management, History, Geography, and Economics.
The Intersectionality of Public Safety
The intersectionality of public safety involves the integration and communication of public safety agencies and social and educational programs at the municipal, state, and federal levels. It requires action by or co-responsibility from various sectors of an organization, in this case, the Public Safety organization. The National Program for Public Security and Citizenship (PRONASCI) combines security policies with social action, prioritizing prevention and addressing the root causes of violence without compromising prosecution when necessary.
Key points of PRONASCI include enhancing the professionalism of public safety, restructuring the prison system, and involving communities in violence prevention. The implementation of the Public Safety Project for Brazil demonstrates the federal government’s concern with addressing violence, new forms of crime, crimes of social exclusion, and transnational technological crime through the use of new techniques backed by science.
Government efforts include:
- Modernization of management and technical equipping of public security institutions.
- Professionalization of public officials responsible for training personnel as multipliers.
- Humanistic, scientific, and multidisciplinary training for civilian and military police, firefighters, city police officers, and prison agents for handling interinstitutional, interpersonal, and inter-citizen relations and maintaining public order.
Public Safety, Public Health, and Welfare as Public Policy
Basic or Low Complexity Policy: This involves federal, state, and municipal functions to prevent the proliferation of crime through preventive and immediate repressive actions. For example, a dilapidated public square with poor lighting and restrooms can become a hub for unemployed individuals, drug users, and criminals, driving away families. When someone vandalizes public property, the government must be vigilant and immediately repair the damage, demonstrating that the state, not criminals, controls the public space. The growing involvement of Brazilian municipalities in public safety reflects the success of those that have moved beyond the excuse of non-constitutional obligation.
Medium Complexity Policy: This addresses murders and crimes of medium complexity and danger. State police, prosecutors, the state judiciary, and the state prison system would handle the prevention and punishment of crimes against persons, property, and other crimes not classified as federal offenses.
High Complexity Policy: This deals with highly dangerous crimes, such as international drug and weapons trafficking, offenses involving powerful and influential individuals, and crimes with international repercussions. Appropriate policies would be used first for prevention, then for arrest and prosecution.
Violence in Brazil: Slavery
Slavery is considered the first form of established violence in Brazil. Over time, laws were created to reduce violence against slaves, such as the Law of Free Birth, the Sexagenarian Law, and finally, the Abolition of Slavery on May 13, 1888, by Princess Isabel.
Violence Against Children and Adolescents
This phenomenon is extensive, serious, endemic, and uneven. It manifests as physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, with negligence being the predominant factor within public authorities, families, and society.
Violence in Schools
This is a widely discussed topic today, as schools are often scenes of aggression, authoritarianism, and disrespect. It has been studied since the 1970s in Brazil and since the 1950s in the United States. It is influenced by both external and internal factors:
- External factors: Race relations, media, gender issues, the social space of the school, and social exclusion.
- Internal factors: Age and grade level, school rules and discipline, and educational projects.
These factors are coupled with the widespread use of drugs, the formation of gangs (possibly related to drug trafficking), and the loss of community ties.
Violence in the Media
The media is responsible for disseminating information about violence. However, when it is presented in a sensationalist and decontextualized manner, merely seeking an audience and using aggressive images and texts that violate the principle of Human Dignity, it becomes a form of violence itself. This often occurs due to a lack of qualified reporters.
The media’s social function should be to influence behavior and values, build public policies, and promote debates in society and government agencies, seeking the root causes of the problem and presenting information seriously and contextually.
Institutional Violence by the Government
The current design of combating criminals, who are considered enemies within slums (considered hostile territories), employs warfare and military strategies for social control, following the model of the military dictatorship. Current problems in public security include police inciting violence as a means of social control, the slowness of justice, lack of communication between security agencies, inflexible and brutalized police training, low skills, low aeration of state structures, and a military conception of security.
Violence in Communities and Streets
We are experiencing a period of great violence against persons, property, morality, and decency. Pockets of poverty and state abandonment, coupled with unemployment and drug trafficking, are becoming increasingly difficult for public security institutions to control. Drug trafficking is considered the engine of violence in the streets and communities, causing murders and terrorizing the population due to disputes over trafficking points and the billing of users and addicts who do not pay their debts, often paying with their lives. Many users commit crimes against property to support their drug addiction.
Primary Objective of Criminal Law Enforcement
The main objective of the Law of Penal Execution is to effect the provisions of a criminal sentence or decision and provide conditions for the harmonious social integration of the offender, promoting their rehabilitation.
Critique of the Teleology of the Law of Penal Execution
The Law of Criminal Enforcement aims for the social integration and rehabilitation of inmates, as well as the execution of sentences. However, there is a total indifference from the public regarding prisons and prisoners. Prisons lack basic sanitation, are overcrowded, and have inadequate food, legal assistance, healthcare, and material assistance, among many other problems. This is not about seeking comfort for those who commit crimes but upholding the Principle of Human Dignity, a fundamental principle of the Federal Constitution of 1988. The current prison system in Brazil is not fulfilling its resocializing function but is worsening individuals who return to society with increased violence due to their experiences in prison.
Difference Between Criminal Enforcement and Socio-Educational Enforcement
Criminal enforcement applies to individuals over the age of 18 who commit crimes and are convicted. Socio-educational enforcement is aimed at children and adolescents who commit offenses. They are subject to socio-educational measures such as warnings, obligations to repair damages, community service, probation, commitment to an educational establishment, and any of the measures specified in Article 101, I to VI of the relevant legislation.