Law in police culture: a study on how interaction with legal institutions shapes the occupational culture of Brazil’s military polices

Abstract

This master’s thesis aims to explore, by means of an empirical study, the ways in which contact with law, legal institutions and legal actors acts as a molding factor for police culture in the context of Brazil’s Military Polices. In doing this, it hopes to contribute both to general socio-legal debates on policing and to the specific discussions surrounding Brazil’s security forces’ difficulties in complying with rule of law standards. Taking academic critiques on classic conceptualizations of police culture as inspiration, I used concepts drawn from Pierre Bourdieu’s and Erving Goffman’s sociological theories to develop a theoretical framework considered fit for a contextualized analysis. The methodology was qualitative, combining five semi-structured interviews with observation of six video-conferenced criminal trials in which officers testified as witnesses. My analysis suggests that contact with the legal field structurally conditions the development of Brazil’s police culture, although not always in the ways intended by law. Influence happens by means of officer’s participation in juridical disputes, their concern with sanctions and their need of legal resources to navigate work routines in a better manner. Additionally, I argue that law is an important symbolic figure in the construction of the officers’ occupational selves, and that contact with legal institutions engenders particular strategies of self-presentation, aimed at safeguarding both appearances and internal ideas about the profession. Further research is suggested to deepen the explanation of this complex set of relations.