“Faccionado’s Office”: Field, Habitus and Criminal Subjection of Social Agents of Organized Crime in the State of Ceará.

Abstract

Objectively, this study aimed to discuss the processes of "co-optation" and "criminal subjection," the genesis of a possible "factional identity," and the development of the social field of organized crime in Ceará. To address this issue, the research employed Pierre Bourdieu's "Field Theory" methodologically, a primarily qualitative approach, and bibliographic and documentary research. In conclusion, the study demonstrated that within the sociocultural universe of "factions" (criminal collectives), violence appears to act as a catalyst for meanings—that is, it appears to feed back into the meanings of crime and function as an instrument that fosters "marginal identities" through the incorporation of a "criminal" habitus, the assimilation of the logic of organized crime, and the imposition of a process of external (through social stigmatization) and internal (through self-affirmation) criminal subjection. In the end, the paper also highlighted the emergence of Reflexive Sociology as an investigative possibility for the “factional phenomenon”.