PROPOSAL OF A PERFORMANCE INDEX FOR THE PUBLIC DEFENDER’S OFFICE

Abstract

The Public Defender’s Office is essential for the Justice System functioning, so that evaluating the performance of this organization is fundamental to improving the provision of justice services in the country. This article aims to propose and test an index of performance for the Brazilian Federal Public Defender’s Office (DPU). The data were collected through interviews with defenders and managers and on secondary official bases of the organization and analyzed through content analysis and exploratory and confirmatory factorial analysis. The results show that, in the interviewees’ perception, the performance of the Public Defender’s Office should be based on the following categories: productivity, success, service capacity, quality of service, speed, access, decongesting and extrajudicial action. The results of the factorial analysis demonstrate the validity of a performance index composed of four factors, such as: assistance to citizens, number of citizens assisted, extrajudicial conciliation and success rate. The application of the index shows that the performance of the DPU has been decreasing over the last years - 2014 to 2017.

Keywords
Administration of justice; judicial performance; public defender’s office; performance index