THE CULTURE OF PUNITIVISM REVISITED IN CONVICTIONS FOR FAMILY THEFT

Abstract

The punitivista culture has found ample space for its expansion to this day. Despite constant and relevant discussions that highlight the role of criminal law as a limiting factor of state power, the performance of punitivism continues to violate the constitutional duties and guarantees of the human being. A common example is the punishment of those conducts that are considered insignificant, because nothing or little affect the legal good protected. In cases that, for example, a theft of less than R$ 20.00 (twenty reais) of food of essential nature, even arrives to the Supreme Court of Justice to be discussed the insignificance or the famélic character of theft. It is concluded that insignificance is fundamental to limit punitive power and that crimes, before being family, can be insignificant, acting in order to reduce the criminal irrationality that appears in the punitive culture, guiding the role of the judiciary and, therefore, its decisions that should not be guided by the cry of an audience hungry for justice and revenge.