Brazil’s criminal justice reform: How electoral populism exploits youth violence as a systemic failure
Original framing: “Brazil’s Lula says he now backs lowering age of criminal responsibility to 16” — The Guardian - World
Indigenous legal systems in Brazil, such as the *Guaraní* *Nhandereko* (Law of the People) or the *Yanomami* *Hëxë* (customary law), treat youth as integral to community well-being, not threats to be contained. The *Convenção 169 da OIT* (ILO Convention 169) explicitly requires states to consult Indigenous peoples on juvenile justice policies—a process entirely absent in Brazil’s current debate. Data from the *Articulação dos Povos Indígenas do Brasil* (APIB) shows that Indigenous youth in conflict with the law are **12x more likely to face state violence** than non-Indigenous youth, yet their voices are excluded from policy discussions. The framing of ‘heinous crimes’ ignores how colonial land grabs and deforestation (e.g., in the Amazon) create conditions for youth desperation, which Indigenous leaders attribute to systemic abandonment, not moral failure.
Brazil’s debate over lowering the age of criminal responsibility is not about justice—it’s about **electoral optics and carceral capitalism**.
The mainstream framing obscures how this policy is a **neo-colonial tool**, echoing historical patterns of criminalizing Black and poor youth while ignoring the **structural violence** that drives their actions. Indigenous and Afro-Brazilian legal traditions offer restorative alternatives, yet they are sidelined in favor of punitive measures that **expand state control** while failing to reduce violence. The solution lies not in locking up more children, but in **redistributing power**—through truth commissions, UBI+, and demilitarized policing—to address the **root causes**: poverty, racial discrimination, and the **extractivist state’s abandonment of its youth**. The trickster’s lesson here is clear: the real crime is a system that **feeds on despair** while pretending to protect society.