Defenders at Law: Assessing the performance of legal defense on Drug Trafficking cases in Brazil.
Few studies have assessed defense performance in criminal cases in the Latin American context. The current research investigated whether defense type affects the odds of conviction and incarceration length for drug trafficking cases in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. We used a Binary Logistic...
| Publicado en: | Crime, Law & Social Change Vol. 79; no. 5; pp. 667 - 690 |
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| Autores principales: | , , |
| Formato: | Artículo |
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Springer Nature
Jul2023
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=ssf&AN=164263054&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: ssf uiTerm: 164263054 longDbName: Social Sciences Full Text (H.W. Wilson) uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09254994 CRG jtl: Crime, Law & Social Change issn: 09254994 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Jul2023 vid: 79 iid: 5 pid: 237 pub: Springer Nature artinfo: ui: 164263054 10.1007/s10611-022-10042-1 ppf: 667 ppct: 23 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 825KB tig: atl: Defenders at Law: Assessing the performance of legal defense on Drug Trafficking cases in Brazil. aug: au: Gonçalves, Vitor Sousa Lages, Lívia Bastos Leocádio, Victor Antunes affil: Texas State University, San Marcos, TX, USA CRISP/UFMG, Belo Horizonte, MG, Brazil Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais (UFMG), Belo Horizonte, Brazil su: Belo Horizonte (Brazil) Brazil Actions & defenses (Law) Criminal procedure Criminal justice system Criminal defense Assembly line methods sug: subj: Actions & defenses (Law) Criminal procedure Criminal justice system Criminal defense Belo Horizonte (Brazil) Brazil Other Justice, Public Order, and Safety Activities Assembly line methods keyword: Assembly line justice Criminal Justice Drug trafficking Latin America Legal Defense Assembly line justice Criminal Justice Drug trafficking Latin America Legal Defense ab: Few studies have assessed defense performance in criminal cases in the Latin American context. The current research investigated whether defense type affects the odds of conviction and incarceration length for drug trafficking cases in the Brazilian city of Belo Horizonte. We used a Binary Logistic and a Linear regression model, controlling the results for defendants and case characteristics. From that, we found no difference in the performance of public defenders compared to private and assigned lawyers. Criminal history, firearms seized, and being the only defendant in the process increased incarceration length. Precision scale or plastic bags seizure increased the odds of conviction. Moreover, non-whites and less educated defendants had higher odds of conviction than their counterparts. We attributed these findings to the functioning of the criminal justice system as an assembly line, in which cases are mass treated. In the absence of reflection on the individualities of the processes, court actors end up making decisions based on stereotypes. In the absence of clear criteria in the Drug Law/2006 on who is a user and a dealer, certain social types – perceived as "bandidos" (Misse, Lua Nova 79:15–38, 2010), would be more likely to be labeled as dealers. In this context, the defense can do little to change the process course and its outcomes. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: N holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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