Criminalizable discourses: a propose of conceptualization from threatening letters

Abstract

Based on discourse researchers (CHARAUDEAU, 2010, 2012; BARROS, 2011), as well as studies from Forensic Linguistics (SHUY, 2005) and Criminal Law (BITENCOURT, 2010), we analyzed two threatening letters with homophobic motivation, seeking to glimpse the socio-discursive imaginary that support the intolerant argumentation developed by the enunciating subjects. We realized that, to the homosexual condition, the threatening subjects associate immoral behavior, orgies, fights, drugs, as well as bestiality, the approximation of the homoaffective relationship to the animal, to the inhuman. In addition, identity conflicts emerge from the letters based on the homosexual condition as opposed to the identity of “good people” or “servant of God,” in a position explicitly contrary to the queer community. Because they constitute hate speech and threats, such discourses can be typified as a crime and, therefore, we propose, in this work, the nomenclature of criminalizable discourses as possible objects of research in Forensic Linguistics.