A administração da justiça e o controle da criminalidade no médio sertão do São Francisco, 1830 - 1880

The judicial power took up, as it still does, a privileged position in the State power structure as the executor of rules and laws, that is, it was in charge of putting law and justice into practice. Thus, the judicial power was effectively the State power that watched, controlled and punished the rich and the poor, masters and slaves, whites and mulattoes, men and women; to sum up, it was a branch of the State in the Brazilian sertões. The present thesis is a study of the practices of justice in the sertão in which we intend to emphasize that in the nineteenth century northern Minas Gerais a civil society, oriented by values and rules of conduct that did not always correspond to those commended by the judicial power, was formed. We also analize the structure and the organization of the judicial power through the study of homicide charges pressed by the inhabitants of São Francisco region. The city of Montes Claros and its surrounding microregion showed social and historical patterns as well as regularities usually associated with the caipira from the interior of São Paulo who, on his turn, has been rigourously and brilliantly studied by Antonio Cândido. The homicides commited in this region revealed the limits and possibilities of the "Empire of the Law". As we interpret the criminal practices among the inhabitants of the formerly mentioned region we verify that there are significant differences in relation to the caipira. This study points out the similar and the dissonant aspects concerning these two human types of the sertões. Also, we point out the continuities, permanences and ruptures in the practices of organization and functioning of the judicial power. Agents and their proceedings, prisons and reinstatement units and the discourse of the managers are analized, that is, the distinct aspects of the planning and the administration of justice. On the one hand, we aim at showing the judicial power put into full practice. On the other hand, the very running of power displays its limits, contradictions and ambivalences. The whole process hid the low level of penetration of the State in Montes Claros and surroundings. Obviously, the striking and evergrowing presence of the judicial power in the everyday life of the sertanejo would become a reality. However, the penetration the State apparatus in that region engendered distinct moments between 1830 and 1880 which we aim at highlighting and evaluating the level of maturity of the judicial and political ordinance in Brazil and Minas. Finally, we discuss the restraints of the interpretations that oppose civil society against State, coast against interior. An interpretation of the sertão areas has been carried out avoiding the usual misleading comparisons that associate sertão with barbarism, interior with archaic and coast with civilization, since we assume that in order to understand the Brazilian social and historical conformation it is necessary to go beyond that. This study is our version of the history of justice in the sertão of northern Minas in the nineteenth century. Only more detailed studies or interpretations will tell if it is appropriate or not.