ABSTRACT
Oriented Empathy: The Representation of the Inmate as a Victim in the 2017 Penitentiary Crisis News Coverage seeks to problematize the representations of the inmate population made by the Brazilian hegemonic press. Based on a specific case - the mass murders of inmates in prison unities at the beginning of 2017 -, this analysis will be centered on the representation of the inmate as a victim in three nationwide range newspapers. The inmate-victim appears as the antithesis of the so-called “savage” inmate. The perspective adopted here is that this distinction was made by semantically revalorizing some of the inmates without, however, avoiding reinforcing another representation of the inmate, as widespread as it is stigmatizing.
Keywords:
representation; social imaginary; inmates; criminal gangs; press