"Judicial Murders"

The Use of "Resistance Reports" and State Lethality in 19thCentury Brazil

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2026/93571

The objective of this text is to deepen and contextualize the historical origins of the *auto de resistência* (AR), a fundamental discursive form for the Brazilian state and its administration.Its distinctive feature lies in the production of an official narrative asserting that a civilian only experienced state violence because they resisted. As a methodological basis, we employed two research techniques: a systematic literature review of Brazilian academic works that mention the "invention" or "origin" of the *auto de resistência* and a genealogy of public debates on *auto de resistência* spanning from 1830 to 1980.

We highlight three key findings that support our central argument: the consensus generated by the reading of Verani's (1996) book on the "invention" of AR during the Brazilian military dictatorship that began in 1964; the variation in the intensity of public debate on AR over the 150-year period covered by the research; and the public controversies surrounding *auto de resistência* during the 19th century in Brazil, already involving state agents' lethality.

By emphasizing the persistent nature of *autos de resistência*, we aim to examine various moments of its application to identify different manifestations and updates in the dynamics of power. This dynamic combines the production of state truth with the unequal, differentiated, and localized management of violence. From this perspective, we argue that the

*auto de resistência* can be considered co-constitutive in the state’s designation of internal enemies in Brazil.