Notes for a history of punitive control in Brazil exercised by Portuguese colonisers

Abstract

This article aims to contribute to the understanding of the history of punitive control in Brazil during the colonial period, based on critical criminological knowledge. To this end, a bibliographic review of books and articles analysing the history of punitive control during this period was undertaken. As the focus of the article is on punitive control, public or private, exercised by the Portuguese colonisers, who simply transplanted their legislation without adaptation to the Brazilian colony, a retrospective of the origins of public punishment in the Iberian Peninsula and its main procedural vehicle, the inquiry, was carried out. The article then addresses the forms of punitive control practised in productive units, sugar mills and coffee farms, and in the urban centres of the Brazilian colony. Finally, the article provides an analysis of the main penalties imposed in Book V of the Philippine Ordinances.