Justiça restaurativa e perdão: uma análise a partir de Paul Ricoeur e Hannah Arendt

Abstract

This dissertation investigates the connection between forgiveness and Restorative Justice. Its research problem arises from the analysis of the criminal law systemic crisis, inefectviness of alternatives to incarceration and chances of extinction of punishability in the form of forgiveness (judicial pardon, amnesty and reprieve). The first hypothesis is that the response offered by the State, which is based on the paradigm of modern criminal rationality, is assumed to be incompatible with forgiveness. This hypothesis is deepened with the understanding of forgiveness from the theoretical framework of Paul Ricoeur and Hannah Arendt and the presentation of restorative justice as an alternative to the strictly punitive paradigm. Starting from the assumption that forgiveness is not required or mandatory in restorative procedures, the study aims at investigating restorative justice potential to create an environment which is favorable to the flowering of forgiveness. This environment can be created by rescuing memory through narrative, returning victim’s voice, the liability of the offender and the ensuing consensual construction of the decision. And finally the role forgiveness plays when it emerges from a restorative process. In order to achieve the proposed objectives, the dialectical and qualitative method was chosen, through bibliographic research, using the works of the mentioned philosophers as theoretical framework to understanding forgiveness, in an interface with authors who present the bases for the restorative model under construction. In its conclusion, this study presents reflections on the possibility of restorative justice creating or not an environment favorable to the appearance of forgiveness and whether this would provide a new action for the offender and the victim.