Os fatores de perpetuação do trabalho escravo doméstico no Brasil: análise dos discursos defensivos e judiciais a partir de um estudo de caso de Juiz de Fora

Abstract

This article investigates the factors that contribute to the persistence of domestic slave labor in Brazil, with a specific focus on how the discourses of justice system actors—particularly the defenses of accused employers and judicial decisions—articulate and reproduce elements of social inequalities that shape domestic work in the country. To this end, in addition to a literature review on the particularities of domestic slave labor in Brazil, a case study method was employed to analyze a Public Civil Action filed by the Labor Prosecutor’s Office in Juiz de Fora (MG), involving the rescue of a worker from a situation of contemporary domestic slavery. Based on an inductive reasoning approach, the research outlines key aspects of the case and conducts a critical discourse analysis of the arguments presented by the defense and the judge in their respective procedural statements.