Estado punitivo e pós‑modernidade: Um estudo metateórico da contemporaneidade

Abstract

This text focuses on the advance of the “punitive state” in contemporary societies, or in other words, the prominence of control rather than social protection and social rights policies. Its central topic is the increasing investment in fighting crime by contemporary democracies, which helps to consolidate the figure of the “punitive state”. The recent sociological reflections of Loïc Wacquant, David Garland, Nils Christie and Zygmunt Bauman, among others, will be used to explore this topic, which is still little discussed by the academic community. The current capitalist arrangement has almost instantaneously spread around the globe, tying the success of economic enterprises to the new face of crime policy. The paper therefore aims to offer an alternative approach to thinking about social control by addressing the so‑called “punitive state”, a policy that suits the economic, social and cultural changes under way in the last thirty years and that, according to some contemporary theorists, inaugurated postmodernity.

Keywords

• democracy
• penal justice
• penal law
• postmodernity
• punitive system
• state