A mediação enquanto prática de justiça restaurativa aplicada em sede policial civil

Abstract

Restorative justice has consolidated in recent decades as an alternative model for responding to crime, proposing a rupture with the traditional retributive criminal justice system by shifting the focus from state punishment to harm reparation, voluntary offender accountability, and victim empowerment. However, the application of this paradigm within institutional spaces historically marked by coercion, such as the judicial police, continues to raise significant theoretical and practical debates. In this context, this dissertation aims to analyze the limits and possibilities of police mediation as a restorative justice practice applied within civil police institutions, questioning whether it can be conceived as a legitimate manifestation of the restorative paradigm rather than a mere conciliatory or administrative conflict-management tool. The research is based on the hypothesis that police mediation may align with a maximalist and integrative conception of restorative justice, provided that specific restorative standards are observed. The study adopts a hypothetical-deductive method, with a qualitative and exploratory approach, grounded in specialized bibliographic review and documentary analysis of laws, regulations, resolutions, and legislative proposals governing police mediation programs in Brazil. National and international experiences are also examined, addressing sensitive issues such as voluntariness, police authority, facilitator profile, lawyer participation, and normative limits of mediating practices. The research concludes that police mediation, when ethically structured and guided by restorative principles, may constitute a legitimate space for social pacification, contributing to the humanization of police practices and to the development of more appropriate responses to criminal conflicts in the pre-procedural stage.