TRAMA: Database on the History of Legal Psychology in Brazil and Public Policies on Criminal Justice and Public Security Related to Youth

Research Summary

TRAMA – "Database on the History of Legal Psychology in Brazil and Criminal Justice and Public Security Policies Related to Youth" is a digital database of concepts and analytical categories present in the theoretical corpus of Brazilian legal psychology and violence studies. With a focus on the historical research of national production on legal psychology, violence studies, and public security policies related to youth, the research creates an electronic archive of public utility and free access for online searches. The database allows users to explore concepts and analytical categories developed in the field of crime and violence studies, with a particular emphasis on legal psychology and public security policies for youth. Each entry includes the term's definition, a transcription of its explanation, and references to the author(s) and works where it can be found. This resource serves as an information source for research, supporting researchers from undergraduate to postgraduate levels. The project holds the potential to integrate psychology with other areas of knowledge, enabling faculty and students involved to experience not only research learning but also the necessity of interdisciplinarity to address complex topics, such as those related to violence studies. The database is the result of a research project coordinated by Professor Juliana Ferreira da Silva and is linked to the Graduate Program in Psychology at the Catholic University of Brasília.

Developed Activities

Data Collection

Data collection is carried out through bibliographic and documentary research. The bibliographic research is conducted by studying Brazilian academic production in legal psychology, studies on violence, and public security policies related to youth, including books, academic journals, conference proceedings on criminology, among other publications. The documentary research uses as analysis material legal, medical, and psychological documents that present and discuss the topic, namely: opinions (legal, medical, psychological), speeches, and explanatory statements presented in legislation, among others. Data collection places special emphasis on the historical period from 1930 to 1960, but the survey sought to map pioneering works in the field, covering the scope from 1900 to 1960.

For the development of this phase, a survey, digitization, and acquisition of historical bibliographic sources related to Brazilian and Latin American criminological studies were carried out. The survey was conducted through public library databases, as well as websites that sell rare or occasionally rare books.

The public library databases used were:

– Rede RVBI – Coordenada pela Biblioteca do Senado Federal, reúne acervo da Administração Pública Federal e do Governo do Distrito Federal, dos Poderes Legislativo, Executivo e Judiciário.
– Base Minerva – Bibliotecas da Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro (UFRJ)
– Rede Sirius – Bibliotecas da Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ)
– Portal PBI – Bibliotecas da Universidade de São Paulo (USP)

The search for rare or occasionally rare books to be used as historical sources for the research was conducted on the website Estante Virtual.

The search terms used were "psicologia jurídica," "psicologia criminal," "psicologia legal," "psicologia forense," "psicologia criminológica," and "antropologia criminal," along with their graphical variants in Portuguese for the period under study (1900 to 1960), namely: "psychologia jurídica," "psychologia judiciária," "psychologia criminal," "psychologia criminal."

The survey resulted in the identification of 81 works, which were cataloged using the software software ZoteroThe program was used because it is open-source software software that functions as a reference manager, enabling the cataloging of bibliographic data and allowing the creation of spreadsheets and PDF files containing the data survey.

The research on websites selling rare or occasionally rare books (Estante Virtual) resulted in the acquisition of 29 works, marking the beginning of the formation of the TRAMA collection.