Criminalization of the working class in the transition to modernity: an interpretative key to an interdisciplinary understanding of the nature of punitive power

Abstract

This article investigates the connection between the historical processes of criminalization, in the context of the transition to modernity in Brazil, with a specific focus on the examination of criminal repression directed against the working class. This conjuncture includes the emergence of urban social movements and the circulation of new ideas, which led to the demands of the proletariat through strikes and the consequent fear of the emergence of revolutionary movements. Legislation from the First Republic that instrumentalized the repression of Brazilian and foreign workers arriving in the country was analyzed. The theoretical framework has a decolonial and anti-positivist orientation, with emphasis on studies developed by Latin American researchers. The methodology results from the interweaving of studies on the history of ideas, the analysis of sociological contexts, and the subjectivities identified in hegemonic thinking, which provides the possibility of an interdisciplinary understanding of the nature of punitive power, based on the criticisms of Tobias Barreto (1839-1889).