Poder configurador positivo do sistema penal na belle époque carioca: 1902 a 1906

Abstract

The positive configurative power of criminal system can be defined as a capillary mesh of state coercion, which manifests itself aspunishment and aims to maintain social control imposing some standards of behavior on people without intervention of judicial agencies. This extravasation of repressive power is common in the criminal justice system, nevertheless it is noticeable that in politically or economically booming societies there is a considerable tendency to adopt informalcriminal coercion, due to the greater need to enforce public values and the patterns of sociability which is intended to spread.In Brazilian historiography, it is possible to affirm that the abolition of slavery in 1888 and the proclamation of the Republic in the following year, stimulated studies, strategies and disciplinary practices destined to consolidate the republican regime and developing a more liberal capitalist spirit in Brazilians. Specifically between 1902 and 1906, the federal capital was administered by Pereira Passos and in that period it was aspired to modernize the city by promoting arbitrary demolitions, compulsory cleaning and hospitalizations of people apparently infected by yellow fever.For these reasons, the general objective of the research was to investigate the importance of positive configurative power of the penal system to civilizethe population of Rio de Janeiro during the urban and sanitary reforms undertaken by Pereira Passos. To do so, the privileged research technique was the bibliographical one, with complementary consultation to official reports of the federal government, data of sanitary infractions and news of newspapers.At the end of the research, it was concluded that the public coercions adopted by Pereira Passos acted as an important instrument for the configuration of social reality, either by pursuing and punishing anarchists, strikers, prostitutes, healers, vagrants and capoeiras, or by disciplining other forms of inappropriate social behavior for political and economic interests of the period.