The infanticidal and the criminal Law: postpartum disorders and the effectiveness of punishment

• Grant number: 11/20693-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: January 01, 2012
• End date: December 31, 2012
• Field of knowledge: Applied Social Sciences - Law - Public Law
• Principal Investigator: Helena Regina Lobo da Costa
• Grantee: Carolina Vieira da Costa
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Direito (FD). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). São Paulo , SP, Brazil

Abstract

The research's intention is to question infanticide as an isolated crime in the Criminal Code and, mainly, the adequacy of punishment, considering its peculiar characteristics against other crimes and the consequences that entail a penalty to the woman. It's important to consider not only the legal issue in view of an extremely criminal justice system but also cultural and social issues in the conduct of infanticide, linking social roles in society-conditioned women. It is also an object of the work, therefore, the social and psychological analysis of motherhood, constitutes an integral element of the criminal characteristics and provides the basis for understanding about woman's behavior in this crime. First, will be the object of the research a concrete analysis based on psychology, obstetrics, and legal medicine, in order to better comprehension of postpartum disorders, and if it's really able to bring psychological changes in women. In a second moment, it is intended to look after the circumstances of the crime's insertion, through case studies and the analysis of the social construction of maternity. At the end of the research, the crime itself, inside the criminal dogmatic, under the theories of punishment's function and accountability, looking for a new approach for the Brazilian Criminal Law So, it's important not only just consider the legal question, the criminal system itself, but also the cultural and social valuables mixed together in the infanticidal's action, according to on the role women have in the modern society.(AU)