"Domestic Violence" and Different Forms of Conciliation

Alternative conflict resolution based on conciliation have been identified as a possible response to problems of access to courts deriving from the numbers, costs and length of proceedings in the Brazilian's judicial system. This paper focuses on these alternative forms of justice, regarding domestic violence. Using ethnographic studies of Women's Police Stations and at Small Claim Courts, we argue that conciliation can be very different in these two institutions of the judicial system. The contrasts between moral values and the symbols used in different forms by these two institutions offer elements that can further be our understanding of the context in which Maria da Penha Law was created on August 17th of 2006. With the promulgation of this law, cases of domestic violence against women were excluded from Small Claim Courts in Brazil