Redução da maioridade penal: uma expressão do direito penal máximo na criminalização de pessoas em situação de vulnerabilidade.

Abstract

The problem of violence and rising crime rates in Brazil has often been linked by the media to the issue of criminal age and the supposed need for its reduction. For this reason, the present work has as general objective, to analyze the influence of Maximum Criminal Law in the Brazilian criminal legal system in relation to this issue. For this, the method was used of approach, the dialectic and method of procedure, the historical, with the aid of the bibliographic research technique. It was noticed that the Brazilian constitutional criminal law adopts a criminal policy of guaranteeing character, with an idea of minimal intervention of the criminal law in the social relations. However, it is possible to observe in the current penal legislation a growing tendency to legitimize a maximum criminal law, considering the current expansion and intensification of the Brazilian penal legislation in the fight against criminal transgressions. Thus, it is important to ask: would the reduction of the criminal majority be a correct criminal perspective in the current Brazilian socio-legal context? In view of the complexity of the issue, it can be observed that the country legislature ends up responding to social pressures by using the expansion of criminal law as the first and quickest way to deal with crime, which in the long run can symbolic and selective criminal law. In conclusion, and despite recognizing the need to evolve forms of control to crime, one should not go back to the flexibilization of individual guarantees, especially when it comes to the criminal law of childhood and youth, a field recognized by the lack of social measures effectiveness of the standard that gives children and adolescents their full protection; more than ever, it will be necessary to take precedence over balance.