Uploaded August 2024 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
Corpus, Habitus and Abuses in Religious Environment: A Debate on Cultural Identity and Victims’ Silence - Tatiana Badaro
-
Disclaimer: This session was delivered for the 2023 ICSA Conference. The speaker of this session does not speak on behalf of ICSA as an organization.
-
Abstract: It is widely reported by Brazilian media the recurrence of abuses perpetrated by alleged religious leaders against their followers. Unfortunately, many of the cases find obstacles in the legal process itself due to a lack of technical information from the magistrates involved. This serious problem, which is a new violence against victims of undue influence, would be easily circumvented if a specialized analysis were requested to assist judges in their decisions.
While Brazilian attention focuses on victimology to explain the phenomenon, it is important to discuss the modus operandi of groups based on undue influence. These groups reproduce the social imaginary that the collective is always right, leading to the logical conclusion that any negative result is attributed to a single subject. However, culture is formed by a broad corpus that implies a habitus that can lead to absurdities. In other words, it is not possible for a single person to be responsible for a social phenomenon such as Bolsonarism.
Bringing this reflection to the logic of victimology in cults of undue influence, it is not the victim who should suffer socio-legal scrutiny, but the group that perpetrated the violence. This leads to one more issue: there is a support network for the abusive leader that needs to be addressed at the academic and legal level.
This talk aims to debate Brazilian cultural identity that favors the silencing of victims and protects criminals, highlighting laws concerning cases of undue influence in religious environments. This study is part of a post-doctoral research at the Federal University of Bahia. The methodological course involved a broad bibliographic review about undue influence in religious circles, as well as documentary analysis of judicial decisions and cases shared by the Public Ministry of five Brazilian states in which the investigated processes took place.
Corpus, Habitus and Abuses in Religious Environment: A Debate on Cultural Identity and Victims’ Silence - Tatiana Badaro
-
Disclaimer: This session was delivered for the 2023 ICSA Conference. The speaker of this session does not speak on behalf of ICSA as an organization.
-
Abstract: It is widely reported by Brazilian media the recurrence of abuses perpetrated by alleged religious leaders against their followers. Unfortunately, many of the cases find obstacles in the legal process itself due to a lack of technical information from the magistrates involved. This serious problem, which is a new violence against victims of undue influence, would be easily circumvented if a specialized analysis were requested to assist judges in their decisions.
While Brazilian attention focuses on victimology to explain the phenomenon, it is important to discuss the modus operandi of groups based on undue influence. These groups reproduce the social imaginary that the collective is always right, leading to the logical conclusion that any negative result is attributed to a single subject. However, culture is formed by a broad corpus that implies a habitus that can lead to absurdities. In other words, it is not possible for a single person to be responsible for a social phenomenon such as Bolsonarism.
Bringing this reflection to the logic of victimology in cults of undue influence, it is not the victim who should suffer socio-legal scrutiny, but the group that perpetrated the violence. This leads to one more issue: there is a support network for the abusive leader that needs to be addressed at the academic and legal level.
This talk aims to debate Brazilian cultural identity that favors the silencing of victims and protects criminals, highlighting laws concerning cases of undue influence in religious environments. This study is part of a post-doctoral research at the Federal University of Bahia. The methodological course involved a broad bibliographic review about undue influence in religious circles, as well as documentary analysis of judicial decisions and cases shared by the Public Ministry of five Brazilian states in which the investigated processes took place.
