A cobrança: os sensos de justiça das facções do Maranhão

Abstract

This thesis deals with the institution of criminal reckonings in Maranhão, understood as a device for mediation and conflict resolution in territories disputed by criminal factions. Combining an ethnographic research of documents with the historical and sociological literature on the subject, we seek to extract the senses of justice - arbitration of damages and responsibilities - that guide the punishments carried out through this device. We understand the reckonings as a result of the transformation of relations between criminals who, consolidating the influence of its normative regime in the peripheral neighborhoods of the "Grande Ilha", establish a set of ethical-political norms that regulate the everyday conflicts. Since criminal groups are formed in a intricate process of struggle within jails and streets, their justice will also reveal sensitive to the contours assumed by this factional war, fundamentally differentiating the justice offered to the pairs, from that offered to enemies.