A quantitative and descriptive overview of the São Paulo State Public Prosecutor's Office's performance in environmental protection in São Carlos (2016-2023)

Abstract

Quantifying and describing the actions of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in environmental issues is essential, given the breadth of its competencies and the discretion in its performance. This study, which is applied, exploratory, and descriptive in nature, adopts a quantitative investigative method, with bibliographic and documentary surveys, to outline an overview of the São Paulo State Public Prosecutor’s Office’s performance in environmental protection, focusing on the municipality of São Carlos, between 2016 and 2023. The analyzed data refer to the procedures initiated by the São Carlos Prosecutor’s Office and were processed using the Python programming language, employing descriptive statistics techniques for exploratory analysis. This study highlights the relevance of the constitutional role of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in safeguarding diffuse and collective interests, and the Civil Inquiry as the primary instrument of its actions. Furthermore, the prominence of the “Urban Planning and Cultural Heritage” category is observed, as well as the historical maintenance of the “Flora” category as the main focuses of the agency in environmental protection.