"YOU’VE GOT TO BE CRAZY TO BE IN THE DC. IF YOU’RE NOT, YOU’RE GONNA BE": THE MENTAL HEALTH OF EMPLOYEES IN THE DEPARTMENT OF CRIMINALISTICS OF THE GENERAL INSTITUTE OF FORENSICS OF RIO GRANDE DO SUL

Abstract

This article’s goal is disclose the daily routine of people who work with crime and violence related places, in an attempt to reveal how the mental health of the servants is affected. The ethnographic research was conducted with employees at the Department of Criminalistics of the General Institute of Forensics of Rio Grande do Sul. The suffering occurs as a consequence of dramatic experiences such as the contact with torn and decomposing bodies, the despair of the families, different social contexts, to relive the crime scene through report writing, and to witness the violence against children. The job satisfaction derives from the well-written report, and from the knowledge of the forensics results in the judiciary’s ambit. The DC’s servant has to deal with violent death by using life-oriented defense mechanisms, which leads to emphasis on a discourse that qualifies this activity as “captivating” for helping the acquittal or conviction of suspected people. To absolve or convict someone implies life preservation; to absolve means to save the life of an innocent individual who could be undeservedly in prison; to convict means to protect the life of members of society from where the guilty individual came from, because in freedom he or she could return to crime.