This paper analyzes the main laws on public safety and criminal justice approved by the Brazilian National Congress in 1989-2006. The research is divided into two different moments: 1) mapping material indicating which are the proponent parties, states, houses; Presidents who sanctioned the laws; number of laws adopted per year and the average time they were debated in Congress according to the proponent house; 2) general types (models) of punishment proposed by those laws. Based on the material presented, I propose that there Brazilian criminal policy undergoes a dispute which includes coexistence laws criminalizing new disputes, laws establishing harsher punishment regarding previous references, and laws de-criminalizing conducts or seeking to set rights and guarantees for defendants.
Brazilian National Congress; law; public safety; criminal justice