Género e experiência profissional na tomada de decisão judicial

: representações dos magistrados

Abstract

In our daily life there are frequent situations where we have to make decisions and judgments, whether they are simpler, like deciding which route to take to the university, or more complex such as the sentence to apply in a particular crime. The study of these latter decisions reaches a great importance since in them resides far-reaching judgments and decisions that can directly influence the life of various persons – not only the accused, but also their family, the defendant, among others. Through this study about magistrate’s representations, we seek to explore the influence that gender and professional experience may have in the judicial decision making. We also seek to define how and in which moments that influence exercises. This research study utilizes the qualitative research method and interviews will be made to 7 magistrates in order to obtain their representations. It was possible to verify that pertaining to the professional experience, there is the uniform representation that it exerts influence over judicial decision making. It was also possible to ascertain in which form is this influence exerted, namely through Security, Improvement, Intuition, Objectivity and Distance, and Casuistic. Pertaining to gender, the obtained data is more divided, since that half of the magistrates do not consider that a relation between gender and judicial decision making exists, whereas the other half considers that it does. It was possible to ascertain in which way this relation is exerted, namely through women having greater sensibility to some issues, and greater judging severity relating certain crimes. It will also be suggested some future avenues of research.

Date of Award	Jul 2011
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Raquel Matos (Supervisor) & Catarina Ribeiro (Co-Supervisor)