Three questions for Aristides Junqueira

By ETCO
15/06/2012

 

ETCO's advisory adviser, Aristides Junqueira, talks about the culture of transgressions. Lawyer and referee, Junqueira is a former Attorney General (1989-1995).

 

How does the culture of transgressions contribute to impunity in the country? What are the consequences that Brazil will suffer in the long run?

Transgression means infraction, violation of a rule of conduct. Transgression is, therefore, to violate a rule of conduct, whether imposed by law, or imposed by good customs. Whoever does so, or who fails to do so, commits an infraction. Now, every infraction must correspond to a punishment, since it is not possible to admit a prohibitive norm of conduct without sanction. The lack of sanction in the face of the practice of a transgression means impunity, which, certainly, encourages the repetition of transgressive behaviors, given the “certainty of impunity”. The inevitable consequence is that of a people without the minimum behavior appropriate to social coexistence.

 

Currently, Brazil is considered an emerging country and, with a strong economy, it has attracted investments from foreign companies and even professionals to operate in the Brazilian market. How can the issue of the culture of transgressions affect Brazil's image abroad?

The consequence for Brazil, composed of all of us Brazilians, transgressors, is, at the very least, that of an unreliable country for those who contribute here to work, mainly, in the business world, where everyone is expected to act ethically. After all, to practice transgressions is to behave contrary to ethics. It is quite possible that the transgressive behavior of the Brazilian people will drive foreign investors away.

 

To what extent can the principle of criminal insignificance and the “trifle crime” contribute to the perpetuation of the culture of transgressions and what mechanisms could be adopted to minimize its effects?

The doctrine of trifle crime, that is, the application of the principle of penal insignificance, already applied on a large scale by our judges and courts, consists in not considering conduct as a punishable crime, without the consequence of which damage caused to others, whether small or negligible. value. Thus, theft, in a convenience store, of chocolate bars, for example, with a loss for the merchant of R $ 200,00 (two hundred reais), is not considered a crime of theft. Likewise, tax evasion of up to R $ 12.000,00 (twelve thousand reais) is not a punishable crime. It is evident that such an understanding encourages unethical conduct and increases, among us, the culture of transgressions, so unwanted.

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