Política criminal e delitos econômicos: apontamentos prospectivos sobre a questão do bem jurídico-penal e a expansão punitiva do direito penal

Abstract

The article seeks to deal with the theme of the construction of the criminal policy today in Brazil. With the absence of reasonable basis for the direction of the Brazilian criminal policy, what is left is the plain and simple Reason of State informing Criminal Law – notably, the so-called Economic Criminal Law. The absence of a solid concept of “juridical good” helps to sustain such situation, opening space for the creation of diffuse and collective legal goods, without concrete coverage. The result is the mitigation of classic rights and safeguards, which ends up being extended to further criminal cases, especially striking the vulnerable groups who already are the preferential targets of the criminal justice system. Added to that, the use of the Constitution against the very same Constitution, for the justification of the incriminations, makes everything more complex. It would be urgent to construct more solid references to limit the exercise of the punitive power in our country, even if the expansion of economic criminal law and its corresponding legal market may appear as obstacles on the horizon.