O domínio da verdade para além da verdade: elemento para o exercício do poder no processo penal à luz da teoria dos campos de Pierre Bourdieu

Abstract

The truth is considered a Criminal Justice System driving element seeking to convict the guilty and acquit the innocent. However, within the judicial field the characters that constitutes dynamics parts of the criminal procedure are members of their classes, possessing identities and habits common to certain fields. Thus, according to Pierre Bourdieu's theory, the Public Prosecutor's Office`s attribute to act as an impartial actor, performing as a law enforcer, including in criminal procedures, must be observed with reservations. Hence, the search for truth in criminal procedures must be analysed by the power disputes and the symbolic capital accumulation perspective. The power over the truth is a relevant symbolic capital and it can be used in accordance to the symbolic capital ratification objectives. With it in mind, is possible to identify that despite the changes caused by the Criminal System Procedure after the 1988 Constitution, the pragmatical results, such as the arrest, prosecution, and imprisonment of the poor and black of society remained the same. Indeed and for immeasurable reasons, the Criminal justice system analysis is sometimes restricted to the Police and the Legal System, even though, the Public Prosecutor's Office has become the link between these two fields, revealing as a necessary institution responsible to perpetuate an arbitrary criminal process that aims the mercantile punishment of the poor in order to maintain the social structure. And all this is preserved by the Criminal Justice Truth search premise