Classificação penal das lesões dentais segundo o Tribunal de Justiça do Estado da Paraíba

Abstract

Bodily injuries that cause impairment of teeth have a substantial impact on the victim. This is a complex evaluation, in which the functions of chewing, phonation and aesthetics exerted by the dental elements must be taken into account. Although dental injuries of a mild nature do not result in high legal discussions, lesions involving severe dental injuries, such as those involving fracture or dental loss, cause many academic discussions and divergent judicial decisions, especially regarding the criminal classification of these lesions. Therefore, the present study aimed to evaluate how the Court of Justice of the State of Paraíba (TJPB) has been legally classifying dental lesions. This is documentary research with a qualitative, quantitative, transverse and retrospective approach in public data. The search was carried out on the website of the Court of Justice of the State of Paraíba (TJPB) through the jurisprudence option, selecting the alternative System and later the function "Search for" by the terms "DENT" and "CORPORAL INJURY", limiting the search for the period between January 1, 2006 and December 31, 2016. Of 96 decisions in the second instance, four decisions were selected regarding the criminal classification of dental injuries involving loss or dental fracture. The data were analyzed in a descriptive way. Of the four decisions, 2 involved dental fractures only (50%), 1 involved dental loss (25%), and 1 decision involved both fracture and loss of dental elements (25%). The dental lesion was considered a very serious bodily injury due to permanent deformity (article 129, § 2, IV, of the CP) in only one of the decisions, issued in 2016; in the others, which occurred in 2008, 2009 and 2012, the framework was a serious bodily injury due to the permanent weakness of a member, meaning or function (article 129, § 1, III, of the CP). No decision was found framing the result fracture or dental loss as mild bodily injury. It is concluded that the dental lesions, characterized by fracture or dental loss, are understood mainly as permanent weakness of limb, sense or function by the Court of Justice of the State of Paraíba, giving rise to its criminal classification as a serious bodily injury.