Penal policy and punishment in Brazil

Marcos César Alvarez, Fernando Salla and Maiara Corrêa

Chapter 15 in Research Handbook on Penal Policy, 2026, pp 292-310 from Edward Elgar Publishing

Abstract: Discussions within the sociology of punishment have highlighted the emergence of a punitive will that appears to dominate contemporary societies. The concept of “punitive turn” – primarily associated with developments in North America and Western Europe since the latter half of the 20th century – has become central to debates in this field over recent decades. Chapter 15 seeks to examine these issues from the perspective of the Brazilian context, drawing on the work of scholars based in the country. Despite Brazil's re-democratization and the ongoing struggle for individual rights, recent decades have seen a deepening – rather than a transformation – of punitive practices marked by brutality, selectivity, and systematic disregard for human rights. This chapter aims to interrogate dominant diagnoses of the punitive turn and the expansion of punitivism by foregrounding the specific historical, political, and institutional dynamics shaping penal policy in Brazil.

Keywords: Punitive practices; Re-democratization; Local diagnoses; Historical perspectives; Resocializing dynamics; Penal populism (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026
ISBN: 9781035308521
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.elgaronline.com/doi/10.4337/9781035308538.00026 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:elg:eechap:22152_15

Ordering information: This item can be ordered from
http://www.e-elgar.com

Access Statistics for this chapter

More chapters in Chapters from Edward Elgar Publishing
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Jack Sweeney ().