The Impact Of Racial Profiling In Criminal Justice: Analysis Of Habeas Corpus 208.240/SP

ANÁLISE DO HABEAS CORPUS 208.240/SP

Abstract

The research addresses racial profiling in police action in Brazil, which often leads to the production of illicit evidence and unfair convictions. The study analyzes the legislation that deals with the topic, in addition to discussing the understanding of the courts of justice and higher courts in Brazil regarding the objective and subjective criteria to characterize the well-founded reason for personal searches without a court order. The specific case that is about to be judged at the Federal Supreme Court (STF) deals precisely with a habeas corpus filed by the Public Defender's Office of the State of São Paulo (DPSP), aiming to annul the evidence obtained through a personal search, on the grounds that it was illegal the evidence produced during the police approach, using structural racism as one of the arguments. The research is relevant to understanding racial discrimination in criminal justice and the consequences of this issue, which have political, legal and social relevance. Based on the cataloged data, the research concluded that the police prefer to approach people who fit a stereotype of criminals in Brazil, being poor, young men, with low education and who, in most cases, live in peripheral areas. Therefore, there is no way to dissociate structural racism, which, in addition to color, directly influences social, economic and political, and mainly legal, issues.