The Constitution, Justice and Citizenship Commission of Chamber of Deputies approved this Wednesday (10) the PEC (proposed amendment to the Constitution) that reduces the criminal majority for 16 years of age.
Therefore, the measure was considered constitutional by the deputies and is now being analyzed by a special committee, which will analyze the merits of the proposal. The project was approved with 44 votes in favor and 18 against.
The federation that unites PT, PCdoB and PV and the one that unites Psol and Rede instructed their benches to vote against the text. The PL, PP and União Brasil were in favor. PSD, Republicans, MDB, Podemos, PSDB-Cidadania, PSB, PDT, Avante, Solidariedade and PRD did not take a position.
The text of the main project on the topic says that, from the age of 16, people will be considered criminally liable.
Currently, minors under 18 are not judged by the Penal Code but by the ECA (Child and Child Statute). Adolescent), which provides for socio-educational measures, such as provision of services and hospitalization, instead of imprisonment in a common penal institution.
The special commission will now have a period of 40 plenary sessions to complete the vote. Then, if approved, the approved project goes to the Chamber plenary. Then you still have to go through Senate. As it is a PEC, it does not depend on presidential sanction to come into force.
The rapporteur, deputy Coronel Assis (PL-MT), ordered the deletion of the text of articles that, according to him, conflicted with the principle of unity of matter.
In addition to reducing the age of criminal responsibility, the text presented in 2015 by then deputy Gonzaga Patriota (PSB-PE) also proposed reducing the age of civil majority and the political rights regime.
The original proposal is being processed alongside two others, which, according to the rapporteur, are also constitutional. The texts will be debated in the special committee, which will prepare a new version.
One, authored by deputy Captain Alden (PL-BA), proposes making an exception to the age of criminal responsibility of 18 to punish those who have committed heinous crimes or extreme cruelty against people and animals.
The other, by congresswoman Julia Zanatta (PL-SC), proposes reducing the minimum age of criminal liability to 16 years old and making children or adolescents aged 12 to 16 years old criminally responsible for committing heinous crimes, involving violence or serious threats against life.
The constitutionality of the issue was approved after resistance from left-wing parties. On May 27, voting was suspended after a request for review by four parliamentarians: Erika Kokay (PT-DF), Orlando Silva (PCdoB-SP), Sâmia Bomfim (Psol-SP) and Talíria Petrone (Psol-RJ).
Voting resumed this Tuesday (9), and parliamentarians tried to postpone the debate through obstructionist practices. They presented questions of order and a request to withdraw from the agenda, which ended up being rejected by 39 votes to 19. The session was closed after voting began in the Chamber plenary.
The session continued this Wednesday, again with defeated attempts by the left to remove the measures from the agenda.
The topic returned to the debate after the death of the dog Orelha, which occurred at the end of January in Florianópolis and motivated protests for the reduction of the age of majority. At first, four teenagers were suspects to sign the animal. In May, the Public Ministry of Santa Catarina requested the closing the case due to lack of evidence.
“It’s a lie that reducing the age of criminal responsibility will make families safer. Are we going to dedicate ourselves to clarifying homicides in Brazil to hold those who kill responsible? Are we going to dedicate ourselves to combating the illegal arms trade? Are we going to dedicate ourselves to financially stifling organized crime?”, said deputy Talíria Petrone (Psol-RJ), author of some of the questions of order used in the attempt to postpone the vote.
“Every time elections approach, some groups try to approve this matter, and use arguments that are false, as if simply increasing sentences, increasing punishments, would solve crime in Brazil or anywhere in the world”, said deputy Renildo Calheiros (PCdoB-PE).
“It is not possible for us to have a reality where young people are able to choose the President of the Republic and cannot suffer punishment when they commit a crime. Under the mantle of the age of criminal responsibility, what we have today is a true incitement for young people to commit crimes, because they are certain of impunity”, countered deputy Rodrigo de Castro (União-MG).
“Once again, what they are trying to say is that a criminal in jail is not resolved? What do they mean that the 16-year-old boy who kills has to do with him?”, added deputy Nikolas Ferreira (PL-MG).
For criminal lawyer and professor of criminal law at USP (University of São Paulo) Pierpaolo Bottini, reducing the age of criminal responsibility will not solve the problem of crime, but will lead more young people to organized crime.
“Today’s legislation already provides for harsh measures for teenagers in conflict with the law, including restriction of freedom. We already have 800 thousand people in prison and crime is only growing. We arrest a lot and the wrong people, insisting on this strategy is continuing to walk on the wrong road”, he told Sheet.
