Discourses and practices around criminal justice:

an historical process oriented analyse during political transition

Abstract

This article identifies discourses and practices in criminal justice analysis throughout the historical process during political transition in Brazil. In the introduction it points how criminal justice institutions are organized, exposing methodological strategies (theory as toolbox, information compilation and historical process reconstruction) as well as the variety of sources used (news, documents and governmental projects, legislation and homicide and prison population rates) and indicating at the end references for building analytical keys. Each group of discourses and practices is identified and explored: conviviality and extra official justice, penal and penitentiary reformism, manifestations around the victim and law and order campaigns. The conclusion considers how the keys of informality, formalization, manifestations around victim figure and relative incapacity allowing to map the configuration of the field. In the end it proposes a balance of the contributions of the research in understanding criminal justice in the broader context of penal system and society.