The theory of labelling approach and the culture of selective incarceration in Brazil

Resumo

The present work will discuss the culture of incarceration in Brazil in order to understand how a selective punishment system occurs. For this, we will analyze the Labeling Approach theory, created in 1960 with the publication of the book Outsiders, written by the American sociologist Howard Becker. This theory explains how a subset of individuals has suffered a process of labeling even by the institutions that control public security. Becker argues that delinquency is a social deviance, created by specific groups of society to frame particular individuals and, as a consequence, put on them the stigma of outsiders. The Labeling Approach theory represented a real rupture in traditional criminology by positioning itself in a critical way and by shifting the problem to the reaction of the other instead of focusing on the action of the deviant. In this perspective, this work will seek to expose the true social, political and legal scenario of Brazil, in order to understand how this process of labeling certain social categories influences the country's prison population profile, aiming to comprehend why this selective culture of imprisonment of the poorest. In order to address the research problem, qualitative and theoretical methods will be used. This work will also seek to understand concepts, such as culture, in order to understand the national penitentiary system.