Alliance against Crime: Interdependencies, Legal Sensitivities, and Moral Boundaries in the Brazilian Criminal Justice System

This article analyzes the practices of the Brazilian Criminal Justice System based on ethnographic data from two doctoral research projects. The first research investigated the legal interaction rituals in custody hearings and criminal trial proceedings, while the second explored the training and preparation trajectory of state judges and public prosecutors. The objective is to understand the actions and practices of the Criminal Justice System through three theoretical categories: symbolic interdependencies, legal sensitivities, and moral boundaries. The methodology included participant observation, ethnographic description, semi-structured interviews, open and in-depth interviews, focus groups, and document analysis. The results show that the symbolic interdependencies between agents and institutions, the legal sensitivities formed during professional training, and the moral boundaries defined in legal rituals are crucial for producing the effects of criminal law, revealing the complexity and nuances of social dynamics in the context of the Brazilian Criminal Justice System.