The Crisis of the Critical Criminology Crisis in Brazil: Epistemological, Methodological and Political Challenges in Authoritarian Times
| Published date | 01 September 2021 |
| Author | SALO CARVALHO,LUCAS VIANNA MATOS |
| Date | 01 September 2021 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1111/hojo.12412 |
The Howard Journal Vol60 No 3. September 2021 DOI: 10.1111/hojo.12412
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 430–448
The Crisis of the Critical Criminology
Crisis in Brazil: Epistemological,
Methodological and Political
Challenges in Authoritarian Times
SALO de CARVALHO and LUCAS VIANNA MATOS
Salo de Carvalho is Adjunct Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology,
Federal University of Rio de Janeiro and Professor of the Postgraduate
Program in ‘Law and Society’, Unilasalle, Rio Grande do Sul; Lucas Vianna
Matos is PhD student in Law, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro
Abstract: Our objective in this article is to outline the current state of critical criminology
in Brazil. Our starting point is the recognition that critical criminology in Latin America
has produced significant contributions to the development of global criminology and poses
acute questions about the current deadlock in the field. The crisis of critical criminology
triggered in the 1980s is being called into question because of the current political reality,
notably in the face of the advance of a new type of authoritarianism. Thus, focusing the
discussion on Brazil, this article seeks to identify contemporary movements of external and
internal critique in the field, organising the debate in epistemological, methodological and
political terms. It seeks to present the challenges of criminological criticism in Brazil and
point out strategic avenues for academic critique and emancipatory movements in order
to build a unified resistance to the authoritarianism.
Keywords: Brazilian critical criminology; critical criminology; Latin American
criminology; Southern criminology
Latin America has been described as a gigantic ‘kidnapping institution’1
(Zaffaroni 2001, pp.74–5) that was built on the backs of enslaved and dec-
imated Indigenous and African peoples. Against this historical backdrop,
critical criminologists have made theoretical advancements in understand-
ing political dynamics in the region. Today, critical criminology in Brazil
faces the challenge of elaborating a response to the process of delegitimis-
ing the criminal system in Latin America, from the margins. Such a process
takes a specific form on the periphery of capitalism because of the differ-
ence between the stated purposes of the criminal system and its impact on
real social life, which is manifested more extremely than in the North due
430
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2021 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford OX4 2DQ, UK
The Howard Journal Vol60 No 3. September 2021
ISSN 2059-1098, pp. 430–448
to high levels of structural (that is, socio-economic inequalities) and institu-
tional violences (police lethality and inhumane incarceration conditions).
We begin by recognising that, although it has been characterised as
a translation of Northern criminology into a Southern context, critical
criminology has a unique/autonomous history in Latin America (Aniyar de
Castro and Codino 2013, pp.323–42; Del Olmo 1981; Zaffaroni 1988,
pp.21–30). Moreover, the ‘crisis’ of Northern critical criminology was
first identified in the 1980s but it is still taking place in Latin America in
general and in Brazil in particular (Aniyar de Castro 1986; Lyra Filho
1980; Melossi 1983; Novoa Monreal 1985). Following this lead, the article
seeks to address this crisis and promotes a discussion on its epistemolog-
ical, methodological and political implications. Notably, our discussion
takes place in the midst of an authoritarian ‘setback’ in Brazil, namely
the current government, where punitivism presents itself as an essential
ideology guiding Bolsonaro administration, described by a significant part
of Brazilian critical thinking experts as neo-fascist (Boito jr 2020; Casara
2020; Singer et al. 2020), which can be verified through our empirical
findings on mass incarceration and police lethality. Although we have
identified that the escalation of incarceration and police lethality are pre-
existing phenomena, present even in leftist governments, we demonstrate
how in the Bolsonaro administration these practices are not only tolerated
but encouraged, through political manifestations and legislative projects,
such as legislations that expand the bases for self-defence in order to
exempt police officers from criminal accountability in urban conflicts
(Amnesty International 2015, 2018; Tangerino 2019; Zilio 2019).
This article is divided into four sections that outline the debate in episte-
mological, methodological and political terms. These three axes of analysis
and their many components are present in all of the next four sections,
given that the issues addressed are interconnected. In the first section, we
analyse theoretical critical criminology in relation to punitive power.In the
second section, we propose a debate on the academic place of critical theory
in criminology, presenting the epistemological tensions that underlie the
discussion in Latin America. In the section following this, taking into ac-
count the intersection of epistemological concerns and political challenges,
we highlight the criminological critique of race and gender.The last section
discusses our main findings.
Criminology, Critical Theory and Political Action
Opposers have often said that critical criminology from its inception has
been a relentlessly romantic and indisputably idealistic field (Aebi 2004;
Stangeland 1998). They also allege it to be purely theoretical and fault
critical criminology for not being actively concerned about victims, crime
or social control. As Stangeland sums up: ‘the most serious error of Crit-
ical Criminology has been its lack of concern for common delinquency
and its victims’. Critical criminologists, Stangeland writes, levelled ‘strong
criticisms against prisons without suggesting any alternatives for [them]’
(pp.208–9).
431
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2021 The Howard League and John Wiley & Sons Ltd
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