Racism and criminal law in liquid modernity

Abstract

The study investigates the intersections between racism, psychology and the punitive system, with an emphasis on criticism of the mass incarceration of racialized groups. Based on deductive method and bibliographical research, the study explores how structural racism, often imperceptible to most people, operates as a driving force in the justice system, perpetuating the marginalization and exclusion of the black population as underlying purposes of Criminal Law. To understand the depth of this process, the theory of the labeling approach and the psychoanalytic metaphor of the mirror stage are invoked, demonstrating how stigma directed at certain groups acts as a powerful mechanism of informal criminalization. The research also dialogues with the concept of liquid modernity, showing that the superficiality of social relations favors the thoughtless reproduction of racist practices, especially the association between poverty, skin color and crime. The conclusion is that only truly anti-racist policies can provide deeper reflections on the role of prejudices in identity formation and in the exercise of punitive power and, thus, deconstruct the selective patterns of the penal system, overcoming the cycles of exclusion and violence that affect the black community.