Os reflexos do discurso emergencial e expansionista punitivo na lei de crimes ambientais

Abstract

The reflexivity of modern society, propitiated by the great phenomenon of globalization, with the dizzying diffusion of new information, provoked the development of what sociologist Ulrich Beck called a society of risk. The present work proposes to analyze how this society of risk has influenced the Criminal Law, determining its expansion too much and inadequate. Society, in the context of the risk in which it is inserted, is taken by feelings of fear and social and legal insecurity, resulting in strong pressures under the State, so that solutions are immediately found. Thus, new laws are created, penalties are aggravated and rights are reduced, because of the strong social clamor about great political influence and tabloid media vehicles. As a consequence of all criminal hypertrophy, the criminal symbolism is also experienced. Elementary principles of criminal law are derogated and guaranteed axioms are sacrificed to support the pedagogical purposes and the goal of positivising new values ​​in society. In the midst of such a scenario, the Law of Environmental Crimes, created in the face of major environmental disasters, was highlighted, which fostered the social outcry for the taking of state measures, representing a clear manifestation of the Emergency Criminal Law. It is verified that the law is full of elements that show the reduction of its effects to the merely symbolic character, disregarding the purposes of protection of the environment and reparation of the environmental damages caused. For the development of the present study, we used the deductive method and the qualitative bibliographic research, performing a critical analysis of Criminal Law, addressing social issues and their influence in the legal-penal field, with greater emphasis on the Environmental Crimes Law. Finally, it is demonstrated the inefficacy of said Law in the fight against environmental devastation, and it is necessary to rethink and propose new efficient ways of protecting the environmental legal good. Among the new forms of protection of the environmental good, it will be about restorative justice and the right to intervene.