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The meanings of punishment in the Brazilian Amazon
Fri, September 5, 8:00 to 9:15am, Deree | Classrooms, DC 503Abstract
In the past two decades, while the Brazilian Amazon rainforest gained prominence in national and international public debates, the states comprising the Legal Amazon — Acre, Amapá, Amazonas, Mato Grosso, Pará, Rondônia, Roraima, Tocantins, and Maranhão — witnessed a significant increase in crime rates, violence, and incarceration. The primary studies have focused on the high lethality rates in Amazonian cities, incidents of massacres, overcrowding in regional prisons, the consolidation of criminal organizations from other parts of the country competing in the illegal drug trade, among other examples. While these efforts are substantial, the interest in studying punishment in the Amazon has been limited. Based on the premise that punishment is one of the inescapable concepts for a refined understanding of social relations and processes, this presentation aims to address the different discourses and projects proposed by Brazilian legislators regarding punishment in the Amazon in its multiple contemporary forms: enhancements in criminal legislation, increased sentences, prison construction, among others. To this end, qualitative research was conducted, focusing on the justifications of projects submitted to the Brazilian Chamber of Deputies between the 1960s and 2024. The selected time frame encompasses the Brazilian military dictatorship and extends to the middle of the third term of Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva during the Brazilian democratic period. From the analysis of the projects, we support the hypothesis that the different meanings of punishment have been a constitutive element of the multiple and multifaceted political projects and visions existing for the Amazon — viewed as a vacant space conducive to the rehabilitation of "delinquents," the neutralization of rising crime, the region's economic development, unlimited exploitation, or the protection of the forest's natural resources, among others. In dialogue with the field of punishment sociology, this work also questions the hypothesis of a punitive turn in the so-called Global South.