The Honor washed with Blood: Gender and the jury in Interviews with Members of the Public Prosecutor of Santa Catarina

Abstract

The jury is considered one of the most traditional and democratic institutions of the Brazilian Justice. But it is also controversial institution, given the degree of subjectivity that can guide the judges' decision, motivated by several inflows, such as politics, religion or cultural and moral horizons. The work focuses on reports of promoters ears in Program Oral History of Memorial Public Prosecutor of Santa Catarina, to capture the emergence of the issue of gender and its implications with regard to crimes committed in defense of honor. The witnesses reported the greatest difficulty in achieving the conviction of defendants accused of murder allegedly adulterous wives, especially in the western counties of Santa Catarina, until the early 1980s.