STUDIES OF BRAZILIAN PUBLIC DEFENDER OFFICES’S PERFORMANCE
Public Defender's Office; Performance; Legal Aid; Access to Justice.
Public defender offices are institutions that work as a tool of the democratic system, with the aim of guaranteeing access to justice through legal advice, the promotion of human rights and the full and free defense of the rights of vulnerable populations. The aim of this thesis project is to propose an explanation for the performance of Brazilian public defenders' offices through four independent and complementary studies. The first, of a theoretical nature, consists of a literature review on the performance of public defender offices. The research analyzed publications in scientific journals based on the PRISMA protocol, searching the Scopus, Web of Science and Science Direct databases. The results allowed for the systematization of two performance dimensions of public defender offices: production and client satisfaction. The dimensions were categorized into different groups, with an institutional, individual, subjective and objective focus. Based on the literature review, indicators were proposed that correlate with the dimensions, as well as antecedents of the performance of public defenders and public defender offices. In addition, the thesis project proposes three empirical studies. The first, of a qualitative nature, refers to interviews with Brazilian public defenders to identify perceptions about the performance of public defenders at an individual and organizational level. The second study, with a quantitative bias, is an inferential analysis, using data from the Rio de Janeiro Public Defender's Office, in order to verify the explanation for the performance of public defenders. Finally, the third study, of a quantitative nature, proposes an inferential investigation, using data from the National Public Defender Survey, to explain the performance of public defenders. The studies therefore propose the definition of research variables and hypotheses, as well as explanatory models for the performance of public defenders and public defender offices. The studies will be carried out sequentially and the results of the previous studies will serve as a basis for the following ones