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the extermination of black people in the brazilian criminal system from the perspective of Achille Mbembe

Abstract

The present work seeks to analyze the functioning of the Brazilian penal system using the concept of necropolitics formulated by Achille Mbembe, to understand the phenomenon of mass death of black people in the country. The research problem centers around the following question: can the forms of rights violations produced by the penal system, through mass incarceration and police lethality, predominantly affecting Black people, be understood from the perspective of necropolitics? To address this question, this study employed a methodology based on a literature review of the central concepts involved, such as those by Michel Foucault and Giorgio Agamben on biopower, biopolitics, and the state of exception, as well as works on necropolitics and Black genocide by authors like Abdias do Nascimento, Silvio de Almeida, and Ana Luiza Flauzina. Additionally, public security data were collected and analyzed to demonstrate the prevalence of Black people in the indicators of violence, police lethality, and intentional deaths. The method employed was inductive, starting from specific observations and empirical data to develop a broader understanding of the phenomenon. The results indicate that necropolitics is a useful and appropriate concept to understand the current structure of the Brazilian penal legal system, showing how the configuration of the judicial apparatus contributes to the extermination and subjugation of Black people, constituting a policy of death.