The star of crime

True crime, the spectacularization of tragedy, and the tension with the 1988 constitutional pact

Abstract

https://doi.org/10.1590/2179-8966/2026/97429

This article investigates the structural tension between the monetization of crime and the fundamental commitments of the 1988 Constitution. Using a theoretical-critical approach, it articulates Marx's analysis of the economics of crime, Guy Debord's theory of the society of the spectacle, and Lenio Streck's constitutional hermeneutics, in order to understand how the spectacularization and monetization of crime produce a commodifying rationality that capitalizes on the suffering of others and converts criminal notoriety into permanent economic advantage. Through bibliographic review, analysis of audiovisual productions, and constitutional interpretation, it evaluates the historical genesis of the true crime phenomenon, the multiple forms of economic profit from violence, and the (in)compatibility of the celebrity criminal with the Brazilian constitutional project. The results show that the monetization of tragedy by its own perpetrators is constitutionally inadmissible, requiring normative intervention guided by human dignity as a structuring foundation of the 1988 order.