The crime, not rarely, is presented as the epicenter of society. Correlated to the decline of the democratic and republican values and principles, we witness a sort of institutional immersion in the criminal matters: everything is criminalized, from politics to insignificant facts.
The criminalization processes are also used to control the undesirable on the eyes of those that detain the political and economic power. The fear is manipulated, the feeling of insecurity increases and the criminal law is transformed in magical answers to social problems.
In the last decades, the majority of the society has become hostage of the narratives about the crime. The result was the increase of repression, severe criminal legislations and punitive judges.
Juarez Tavares, one of the most important Brazilian intellectuals, presents in this book a precise diagnosis of the criminal matter, revealing the damages caused by the official speeches. At the same time, he indicates an emancipatory perspective in the opposite direction of the criminal populism and of the blind faith on punishment. Through a transdisciplinary approach, Tavares reminds that crime is merely a juridical concept, an instrument at service of the power, and that nothing justifies the defense of foolishness under the pretense of combating crimes.
Against the common sense and the odes to the punishment, Crime: belief and reality presents a necessary analysis of the requirements that nurture the taste for punishment and the naturalization of the criminalization processes. It is a bold invite to rethink the place of the crime in the contemporary world.