Speech of Crime and Speech of Violation

Two Faces of Structural Violence in Brazil

Abstract

This article examines the social representations produced by relatives of victims of state violence and by actors in organizations dedicated to supporting and advocating for these victims. Drawing on Caldeira’s (2000) notion of “talk of crime,” the article proposes the concept of “talk of violation.” It argues that “talk of violation” operates as a narrative form that organizes diffuse, continuous, and collective experiences of state violence, in contrast to episodic, moralizing, and segregating accounts associated with common crime. Based on 21 interviews conducted in Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo, the analysis first explores how interlocutors define torture through legal, native, and political frameworks and, subsequently, how trajectories marked by violent state practices engender collective subjects, particularly movements of mothers of victims. The findings suggest that what is named here as “talk of violation” denaturalizes historically legitimized state practices by articulating a shared narrative of suffering in the public sphere and by placing pressure on security and justice institutions, thus exposing the limits of Brazilian democracy. The proposed category contributes to understanding situated forms of meaning-making around violence in contexts of structural inequality.