“I ACCUSE THIS MAN OF BURYING HIS MOTHER WITH CRIME IN HIS HEART”: POR UMA ANÁLISE DE “O ESTRANGEIRO” DE ALBERT CAMUS À LUZ DA TEORIA DO LABELLING APPROACH

Abstract

This work aims at presenting an analysis of “The Outsider” by Albert Camus in light of the labelling approach theory. Such theory has its origins in the revolutionary context of the 60’s in the United States, and stands as an epistemological reaction to the positivist school of criminology, which investigates crime from an etiological point of view. To the labelling approach, there is no such a thing as a criminal nature that could be “revealed” through the use of scientific methods of observation; instead, the focus lies on criminalization, a process through which the criminal label is build upon a stigma and successfully applied to an individual. This research is predominantly descriptive with a bibliographical approach to the subjects discussed and makes use of historical and statistical procedures. Upon research, aspects of the selectivity of the criminal system could be observed. With emphasis on Brazilian and American social reality, it was noted that the criminal phenomenon pervades the selection of vulnerable individuals, among other aspects, due to racial and socioeconomic issues. It indicates that the referred system is ideologized and meets the interests of dominant classes in society.