Police! For Those Who Need Justice. What Do Brazilian Judges Think and Do About Police Violence?

• In Event: Perceptions and Attitudes Toward Policing: Assessing Police Legitimacy and Opportunities for Reform

Abstract

Brazil has one the most violent police forces in the world, ranking first in the number of police killings, which overwhelmingly victimize Black working-class young men. Research has pointed to several causes for this phenomenon, such as high crime levels, structural racism, police militarization, and media and social approval. However, much less is known about the judiciary’s role in containing or sustaining police brutality. In this paper, I investigate how judges perceive police violence and how they decide in tort lawsuits seeking compensation for police misconduct in Southern Brazil. Combining social representation theory and Bourdieu’s conceptualization of judicial decisions as an act of state, I seek to uncover how judges’ practices and speeches intertwine to legitimate or challenge police brutality. To this end, I employ three different methods: observation of custody hearings, textual analysis of judicial decisions on compensation actions against the state for police violence, and semi-structured interviews with judges. I find that judges tend to accept the police’s narratives of cases and tolerate high levels of violence, hence legitimating and naturalizing it as an acceptable practice, usually committed against working-class Black Brazilians.

Author

• Mariana Py Muniz, Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul - PUCRS