Homicide and punishment between formality and informality

The article deals with the judicial perspective on punishment, as a formal feature of coercion, after a review of ten convictions for homicide, emphasizing building responsibility on the defendant and justifications for punishment as a joint task carried out both by prosecutors and by judges. This operates through the use of normative categories articulated with witness testimony and with technical expertise framed into rigid schemes. Then proceeds to review accounts from eleven offenders in the same causes to which the convictions refer, as a clue for informal perceptions of coercion, emphasizing feelings about punishment and compensation following the convicting outcome. Analysis shows that juridical discourse along the conviction and sentencing diverges from the meaning attributed by offenders to coercion following prosecution and conviction. It concludes by suggesting broading juridical and sociological perspectives by integrating narratives from operating judicial agents, with those from convicted offenders and from victims of crime in order to better understand the social meaning of punishment and to build grounds for promoting public policy increasing safety among the population