REDUÇÃO DA MAIORIDADE PENAL SOB A ÓTICA DE UMA SOCIEDADE EXCLUDENTE: UM ESTUDO DE CASO JUNTO AO CONSELHO TUTELAR E AO CONSELHO MUNICIPAL DOS DIREITOS DA CRIANÇA E DO ADOLESCENTE EM PELOTAS, RS

Abstract

This study aims to analyze the reduction of full legal age from an excluding society point, using for such case studies performed at the CT - Conselho Tutelar (Tutelary Council) and the COMDICA - Conselho Municipal dos Direitos da Criança e do Adolescente (City Council of Children and Adolescent Rights) in Pelotas, RS. Within this scope, we tried to establish whether the councils above mentioned have been influenced by the contemporary discourse of expanded penalization, or whether they are characterized for being resistance courts to the punitive and excluding pretentions of modern society, reasserting the democratic principles upon which they were based. In our study, we learned that, in spite of the fact that most members of the two councils do not favor full legal age reduction, the punitive view is disclosed among their members by means of other proposals: the increase in the confinement period for young lawbreakers, and the prison system privatization. We also learned that the CT which by law cannot have a normative nature has not changed its status quo, while at the COMDICA, the governmental and civil society membership parity does not unbalance this struggle so as to favor popular aspiration, in accordance to the 1988 Brazilian Constitution Principles. We realized that members with a governmental background are better prepared for their counseling job, once they are used to the judicial and technological jargon they already employed in their previous workplaces, that is, state agencies. On the other hand, civil members do not have access to qualification courses for their job as councilors. Furthermore, the two councils do not favor popular interest canalization as they are ideological apparatuses that serve State purposes