Klaus Hart Brasilientexte

Aktuelle Berichte aus Brasilien – Politik, Kultur und Naturschutz

„Age of criminal responsibility and a negligent state“. Brasiliens wichtigster Befreiungstheologe und Yoani-Sanchez-Kritiker Frei Betto. Daten und Fakten zu Brasiliens Bildungswesen unter Lula-Rousseff.

AGE OF CRIMINAL RESPONSIBILITY AND A NEGLIGENT STATE

Frei Betto*

Geraldo Alckmin (PSDB – Social Democrat Party), governor of the state of São Paulo, is not able to reduce the violence in the state. He therefore prefers to say that the grapes are not ripe like the fox in La Fontaine’s fable…  and proposes a reduction in the age of criminal responsibility since the police prove they are not capable of reducing the crime rate.

The number of homicides in the city of Sao Paulo grew 34% in 2012, the murder rate being 12.02 per 100,000 inhabitants. 547 people were killed in supposed confrontations with the Military Police. Cases of rape increased 24%; car theft 10% and armed robbery involving death 8%. Bank robberies fell by 12%. This data comes from the Public Safety Secretariat, published on 25th January 2013.

A DataFolha opinion poll in the city of Sao Paulo showed that 93% of the inhabitants want the age of criminal responsibility reduced, 6% are against it and 1% had no opinion. It is worth mentioning that 42% affirm that public policies are needed for reducing crime amongst young people.

http://www.hart-brasilientexte.de/2013/05/03/brasilien-verschlechterung-auf-pressefreiheit-weltstatistik-von-ngo-freedom-house-der-usa-um-zwei-platze-auf-91-rang-abgerutscht-morde-an-brasilianischen-journalisten-angeprangert/

  http://www.hart-brasilientexte.de/2013/04/24/yoani-sanchez-am-8-mai-2013-in-berlin-eingeladen-von-reporter-ohne-grenzen-kein-veranstalterhinweis-auf-freundschaftliche-treffen-mit-rechten-und-rechtsextremen-in-brasilien/

“Adults are a problem for the young” philosopher Carlito Maia used to warn. If young people under 18 rob and kill it is because, as police investigations show, they are manipulated by adults who are well aware of the difference between prison for those over 18 and for those under 18.

A study by the National Secretariat for Human Rights has attested that, amongst 53 countries, 42 have adopted the age of criminal responsibility for the over 18s. However, suppose the age of responsibility were lowered to 16 years. Adult offenders would induce 15 or 14 year olds towards crime. Actually, in some US states children of 12 are responsible before the law.

I am against reducing the age of criminal responsibility because I believe it will neither resolve nor reduce a rise in violence. The responsibility lies with the government who always invest in effects and not in causes. There should be a law capable of punishing the negligence of authorities regarding the inclusion of children and youths.

At present 19.2 million Brazilians (10% of our population) have had no schooling or attended school for less than a year.

12.9 million Brazilians over seven years of age cannot read or write. 20.4% of the population over 15 years are functional illiterates – they can sign their name but are not able to write a letter or interpret a text. In the 15 to 64 years’ group only one in every three Brazilians can barely interpret a text and do elementary sums.

In 2011, 22.6% of children between four and five were not in school. And, below those ages, there were no available crèches for 1.3 million.

The most alarming fact is this: there are 27.3 million young Brazilians between 18 and 25. In this contingent, 5.3 are not in school or are out of work. But they want to consume, wear brand name runners, carry cell phones or iPhone5s, go dancing, wear fashion clothing, etc.

How do these 5.3 million young people in the “neither nor” (neither school nor work) group live? Many live from crime. The greatest crime, however, is the State’s, for not assuring all Brazilians a full time quality education.

If the age of criminal responsibility is reduced investments in the construction and maintenance of prisons will have to be increased. Brazil at present houses the fourth largest prison population in the world, 500,000 prisoners, followed by the USA (2.2 million), China (1.6 million) and Russia (740,000).

According to the National Penitentiary Department, there is a deficit of 198,000 places, i.e. many detainees do not have the six square metres of space demanded by law. Many have only 70 square centimetres.

According to Jose Eduardo Cardozo, the Minister for Justice, “death is preferable to imprisonment in Brazil”. This means that our prison system is merely punitive, it lacks a corrective methodology towards social re-insertion.

Law 12.433 of 29th June 2011 establishes that 12 hours attending school or three days working will reduce a sentence by one day respectively. Which prisons, then, have quality schools and professional training capable of returning their citizenship to delinquents?

In truth, as Michel Foucault observed, our political elites have little interest in re-educating prisoners. They prefer to hold them as dead wood and treat them as human excrement.

What can one expect of a country where a former governor of the richest state in the Federation, Luiz Antonio Fleury Filho, justifies the massacre of 111 prisoners in Carandiru prison in 1992, saying it was a “legitimate and necessary” action?

*Frei Betto is a writer, author of “Diário de Fernando – nos cárceres da ditadura militar brasileira” (Fernando’s Diary – in the prisons of the Brazilian military dictatorship) (Rocco).

Dieser Beitrag wurde am Freitag, 03. Mai 2013 um 16:58 Uhr veröffentlicht und wurde unter der Kategorie Politik abgelegt. Du kannst die Kommentare zu diesen Eintrag durch den RSS-Feed verfolgen.

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