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Marie-Eve Sylvestre

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S.J.D. 2007


 

Dissertation

Criminalizing and Policing the Poor: Vagrancy Laws and Anti-Incivilities Ordinances in Rio de Janeiro and Montreal

Anti-incivilities ordinances and zero-tolerance policing practices emphasizing enforcement of criminal laws against incivilities and disorder such as graffiti writing, public urination, public drinking, gathering of youth in public spaces, vagrancy, and bothersome presence of prostitutes and homeless persons, continue to have dramatic consequences for the poor in several cities of the world. In this context, different aspects of the criminal justice system (from policy-making to policing practices, procedural mechanisms and rules of moral culpability) come together to produce an entire regime of criminalization of poverty and social exclusion. In the first part of my dissertation, I show how these different aspects of the criminal justice system have a disparate impact on the poor and the socially excluded in the cities of Montreal (Canada) and Rio de Janeiro (Brazil). I support this claim by using empirical evidence from my own field work and other secondary sources. In the second part of my dissertation, I suggest that this judicial regime lies on an important paradox: on the one hand, actors in the criminal legal field (policy makers, police officers, prosecutors and judges) justify and legitimate repression against the poor and the disorderly based on a general conception of individual culpability, merit and choice while at the same time our rules of moral culpability and criminal procedure largely undermine, simplify or ignore what it means to be deserving, choosing, responsible and guilty. In particular, there is little consideration of the constraints, the needs and the realities of the poor and socially excluded populations. I conclude in offering a new conception of crime and culpability that can take into account the constraints and needs of poor populations in Brazil and Canada and that can resolve the false dilemma between simply tolerating incivilities and disorder (a more liberal approach) and severely combating them (a more conservative approach).

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