“Vandals”, “Workers” and “Citizens”: Criminal Subjection and Political Legitimacy in the Criminalization of June 2013 Protests^*

ABSTRACT

This article aimed to analyze a criminal subjection process identified in a study about the criminalization of protests held in June 2013 in the city of São Paulo. Initially formulated to understand the “marginal” and the “bandit” as criminals produced by police and judicial intervention in a context of urban violence structured by inequalities, using the concept of criminal subjection in the analysis of the subjectification processes of actors involved in protest practices with evident political content raises specific questions: How to understand criminal subjection processes affecting political activists and social movements? What are the social and political effects of these processes for the constitution of a democratic political space and the legitimation of political protest in Brazilian politics? To answer these questions, this study analyzed criminal proceedings, institutional documents, interviews with protesters and criminal justice agents and authors of media texts.

criminal subjection; criminalization; criminalization of social movements; protests; June 2013