LYNCHING: A PRACTICE OF EXTRAJUDICIAL PUNISHMENT

Abstract

This article analyzes lynching as a form of punishment in Brazilian society, also presenting a discussion on how this practice occurred in the past, when institutional forces were non-existent or fragile. In the case of Brazil, lynching has the peculiarity of being motivated not, at least directly, by prejudice, but by moral precepts such as justice and honor. The practice occurs in a way that removes the culpability of the masses by dehumanizing the victims, who are excluded from their social framework by being reduced to mere causers of social evil. The research was based on the analysis of social conduct and allowed an approach that dialogues with thoughts of authors who follow explanatory lines, such as René Girard, who, with his Scapegoat theory, scrutinizes the practice of lynching, exemplifying it with real cases and explaining it through theses such as victim mechanisms. It was concluded that the practice of lynching occurs as a form of parallel justice in countries with structural and institutional deficiencies, and that, in Brazil, its occurrence takes the form of extrajudicial punishment for offenders, regardless of the veracity or not of the infraction which motivated the lynching. The approach method is hypothetical-deductive, qualitative research, bibliographic procedure.