Racism and punishment: an analysisof the Federal Supreme Court's discourse on racial crimes.
Racism, Criminalization, Supreme Court, Criminology, Systems Theory, Discourse Analysis.
In this dissertation, we investigate the discourse present in two pivotal judgments of the Brazilian upreme Court regarding racism. One of them dismissed racism charges against former Congressman Jair Bolsonaro(Inquiry 4694), while the other established that insult constitutes a form of racism, rendering it non-time-barred (HC154248).We explore the characteristics of Brazilian racism, emphasizing that the concept of an "unforgivable crime" is a legal simplification of a complex social issue. Racismisa multifaceted phenomenon deeply rooted in historical events such as colonialism and imperialism.We introducecritical criminology,whichviewscrimeasapoliticalconstruct influenced by political and social disputes, and the theory of social systems, which sees the law as an autonomous social system. Both approaches help us understand how racism is codified and absorbed by the legal system. We analyze the discourse in the two selected judgments using Empirical-Rhetorical Discourse Analysis as our method. Our hypothesis suggests that the discourse present in the two judgments tends to render racism invisible. The dissertation concludes by summarizing the findings and providing reflections on the research's implications.