Clipping of news on Brazilian Culture, Law and Citizenship
22/04/2013
This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.
Thais Leitão
Brazil Agency reporter
Brasilia - Reduce the age of criminal responsibility is to recognize the failure of the Brazilian State to ensure appropriate care and opportunities for youth. For the lawyer Ariel de Castro Alves, an expert on public safety policies and former member of the National Council for the Rights of Children and Adolescents (Conanda), "would be a testament to the bankruptcy of the social protection system in the country."
The debate on the issue resurfaced in recent days, after the murder of student Victor Hugo Deppman, 19, during a robbery in front of his house in the neighborhood of Bethlehem, east of São Paulo. The attacker was a 17 year old who, days later, turned 18. With that, he will fulfill educational measure, because the crime was committed as a minor.
In addition, the Governor of São Paulo, Geraldo Alckmin came to Brasilia last week to advocate changes in the Child and Adolescent (ECA) and the Penal Code in order to try to curb the participation of adolescents in crimes. One of the proposals is to extend for up to eight years the period of hospitalization less in conflict with the law.
For Ariel de Castro, a member of National Movement for Human Rights, defending the reduction of the penal "in the heat of emotion" does not guarantee combating root causes of violence in the country. For him, the certainty of punishment is what inhibits the criminal, not the size of the penalty.
Castro warns of the consequences of lowering the age of criminal would be the increase in crime and violence. "It is an illusory measure which contributes to professional criminals have increasingly earlier age, formed in chains within a prison system archaic and bankrupt," he said.
"In Brazil there is the certainty of impunity, as only 8% of homicides are cleared. We need to restructure the Brazilian police and improving the performance and structure of the judiciary and not to condemn measures that Brazil's future to jail, "he added.
The expert also emphasized that the recidivism rate in the prison system, according to official data of the Ministry of Justice, reaches 60%, which, in his opinion, indicates "clear" that it is a system unable to resolve the situation. In the system of adolescents, however critical that is, an estimated 30% recurrence.
"If you put adults in jail a broken system did not solve the problem of violence, and these people turn to crime after being free, why we think hold increasingly earlier will be efficient?" He asked.
For the associate director of the nongovernmental organization (NGO) Conectas, who works for the realization of human rights, Mark Fuchs, modify the current legislation to put young people in jail reinforces the idea of "mass incarceration" which, in his assessment, not is efficient. He points out that the young Brazilian longer appear among the victims of violence than among perpetrators of serious crimes.
"The numbers of House Foundation in São Paulo, show that robbery and murder each represent less than 1% of cases of hospitalization for youth under socio, the majority [of cases of hospital] for theft and trafficking drug, "he said.
"Moreover, the latest Violence Map indicates that the question to be considered from the standpoint of public policy is mortality of young, especially young blacks, and non-authorship of serious crimes by young people," he added.
According to the latest Violence Map of every three killed by firearms, two are in the range of 15-29 years. According to the publication, taken by the Brazilian Center for Latin American Studies and the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, the youth represent 67.1% of the victims of firearms in the country.
Edition: Juliana Andrade and Lily Beraldo
Source: Agencia Brazil
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This article was translated by an automatic translation system, and was therefore not reviewed by people.