A construção simbólica da verdade no discurso jurídico: relações de poder no estudo do caso do Crime da 113 Sul

Abstract

This study aims to analyze how legal language operates in the symbolic construction of truth within the legal field, through the articulation between discourse, power, and ideology. Based on a critical approach to language, the research draws on the theoretical frameworks of Pierre Bourdieu (2001), Louis Althusser (1985), and Michel Foucault (2021a), and adopts Relevance Theory as a conceptual support to understand the role of context in the production of meaning in legal discourse. The selected case study is the so-called “Crime of the 113 South”, which took place in Brasília, and led to the conviction of police officer Martha Geny Vargas Borraz for procedural fraud. The methodology is qualitative and analytical, grounded in thematic content analysis of judicial documents. The findings indicate that legal truth, far from being an objective representation of facts, may be manipulated by agents endowed with symbolic capital, such as police officers and judges, who use institutionalized discourse to legitimize specific versions of reality. It is concluded that legal language not only describes facts but constitutes them, reproducing ideological structures that naturalize power relations within the legal system.