SELF-DEFENSE AND VICTIM BLAMING: A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF CRIMINAL LIABILITY AND THE PSYCHOSOCIAL FACTORS INVOLVED

Abstract

The Brazilian criminal justice system operates under a structural tension between the legal protection of victims and the cultural and procedural mechanisms that transfer part of the responsibility for the crime onto them. This study analyzes the relationship between self-defense as a justification for unlawfulness and the phenomenon of victim blaming, examining its dogmatic, psychosocial, and gender-based foundations in the Brazilian legal context. The research adopts a qualitative approach, of basic nature and exploratory character, developed through systematic bibliographic review in Qualis A1 and A2 journals indexed by CAPES, published between 2021 and 2024. The results demonstrate that victim blaming operates both at the procedural and symbolic levels, reproducing gender, race, and class stereotypes that compromise the equality of criminal prosecution. The analyses indicate that recent normative instruments, such as ADPF 779 and the Mariana Ferrer Law, represent advances in addressing these distortions without, however, eliminating the cultural foundations that sustain them. The study contributes to the field of critical criminal law and victimology by articulating legal, psychological, and sociological perspectives on the phenomenon. The findings reinforce that the full protection of victims requires not only normative reforms but also transformations in judicial culture, in the training of legal professionals, and in the social representations that structure the attribution of moral responsibility in criminal conflicts.