A Datafolha poll says 70% of Brazilians support applying adult-equivalent penalties to young offenders, according to single-source reporting from Revista Oeste. The survey comes as Brazil’s Congress, the bicameral National Congress, debates changes to the legal treatment of adolescents who commit serious offenses.
Under Brazilian law, acts committed by people under 18 are classified as “infractions,” not crimes. The distinction matters because minors are subject to the country’s juvenile justice framework rather than the ordinary criminal code used for adults.
Congress Debate
Revista Oeste reported that the issue has advanced in the Chamber of Deputies, Brazil’s lower house, after a bill proposing changes in the area passed the Chamber’s Constitution and Justice Committee, known as the CCJ. The measure is now waiting for the formation of the committee that will analyze its merits.
The source did not provide the full text of the bill or specify which offenses would be covered. For that reason, the scope of the proposed change remains unclear from the available material.
The debate is politically sensitive in Brazil, where violent crime, public security and juvenile accountability often become campaign issues. Supporters of tougher penalties argue that current rules are too lenient for serious offenses. Critics typically defend rehabilitation and warn against treating adolescents the same way as adults, though the provided source focused mainly on polling data rather than detailed arguments from both sides.
Religious and Political Split
The Datafolha survey found majority support across religious groups cited by Revista Oeste. Among evangelicals, 75% supported adult-equivalent punishment for adolescent offenders, while 24% preferred reeducation. Among Catholics, support stood at 72%, with 25% favoring reeducation.
Only 3% of respondents said they did not know how to answer the question, according to the report.
The poll also measured views by voting intention. Among voters who back Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the president from the Workers’ Party (PT), the center-left party he leads, 61% supported punishment equivalent to that imposed on adults, while 37% preferred reeducation.
Among voters who support Flávio Bolsonaro of the Liberal Party (PL), the reported support for adult-equivalent punishment reached 81%, with 17% preferring reeducation. Revista Oeste did not provide additional detail in the excerpt on how those electoral groups were defined.
Drug Policy Question
The same survey asked respondents about drug use. Revista Oeste reported that 85% agreed with prohibiting consumption, using the argument that “all of society suffers the consequences,” as attributed to Datafolha. Another 13% opposed prohibition, saying the user is the one who suffers the consequences, while 2% did not know how to answer.
The article contains one internal inconsistency on the trend line: it reports current support at 70% and also cites 75% in 2022, while describing the current figure as an increase. Based on the figures provided, the safer reading is that Datafolha’s current reported level is 70%, without drawing a conclusion about whether support rose or fell.
Datafolha interviewed 2,004 voters aged 16 and older on June 17 and 18, across 139 municipalities. The source did not provide the poll’s margin of error in the excerpt supplied.