Criminal Effervescence and Death Rituals: Factional Executions in Timon, Maranhão, Brazil.

Abstract

This study analyzes the Intentionally Lethal Violent Crimes (ILVC) that occurred in the city of Timon (MA) and were reported in local and regional press outlets between January and August 2024. Drawing on Norbert Elias’s notion of social configuration and Émile Durkheim’s reinterpretation of collective effervescence, it develops the analytical category of criminal effervescence, understood as the intensification of collective emotions and energies surrounding criminal practices, particularly those of a lethal nature. The methodology is based on journalistic sources complemented by police inquiries and interviews, while highlighting the limits and necessary precautions in the use of news reports as research material. The findings suggest that the murders committed by the Bonde dos 40 in Timon cannot be understood solely as strategic eliminations of rivals but also as symbolic rituals that organize the faction’s social life, reinforce its codes of conduct, and generate internal cohesion through violence.

Keywords: crime, homicide, faction, criminal effervescence, ritual.