Sistema de justiça criminal, desigualdade e microlitigiosidades: uma investigação sobre a atuação do juiz no contexto das varas criminais da cidade de Juiz de Fora - MG

Abstract

This thesis is inserted into the academic debate on the microdynamics of power and fragmentation in modernity, using a critical lens to analyze the apparent "crisis of punitive power" in the Brazilian context. It is argued that mass incarceration and systemic inefficiency actually represent an autopoietic dynamic of the penal system that feeds itself and gains legitimacy. The research highlights that justice operates in a selective and unequal manner, concentrating punishment on vulnerable segments. This selectivity is visible in the crime of robbery (Art. 157 of the Penal Code), a class conflict that exacerbates inequality and pressures the Judiciary for immediate responses. The central objective of this investigation is to unveil the institutional mechanisms and operational logics of judicial practice, analyzing how the actions of the criminal magistrate contribute to the reproduction of the system's structural selectivity. The empirical study focuses on the analysis of robbery criminal sentences handed down in the TJMG (Court of Juiz de Fora, 2018-2019), investigating the judge's subjectivities, the handling of legal categories, and the influence of sentencing on their decisions.