The Criminalization of Poverty in Brazilian Conservative Political-Media Discourse

Abstract

This article examines how conservative political-media discourses in Brazil construct poverty as a moral failure, an urban threat, or a matter for policing, thereby contributing to its symbolic criminalization in digital environments. Grounded in Critical Discourse Analysis, it brings together Fairclough’s three-dimensional model, Van Dijk’s socio-cognitive approach, and Wodak’s discourse-historical perspective to analyze statements by public actors and their circulation on platforms such as X/Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. The findings reveal recurring strategies of delegitimizing social policies, the biologization of poverty, individual blame, and “us versus them” polarization, alongside metaphors of cleanliness and security that normalize repressive interventions. The article argues that these discourses obscure structural determinants (inequality, labor precarization, racism) and reinforce a punitive imaginary that legitimizes institutional violence and penal selectivity, critically updating Marxian warnings about transforming social problems into criminal matters.