Subculture and pedocriminal discourse in the Dark Web:a study through the lens of Metalinguistics and Cultural Criminology of the Dogolachan organization

Abstract

The Dark Web is a digital space of counter-discourses that challenge hegemonic norms — legal, educational, political, and moral. In this scenario, the Brazilian forum Dogolachan, whose discourse of pedocriminal subculture eroticizes and aestheticizes child sexual violence as a ritual of belonging, stands out. This research analyzes, from a metalinguistics approach and a criminological approach to culture, how the discourse of this organization mobilizes signs linked to misogyny and the eroticization of childhood, in order to understand how they operate as mechanisms of group cohesion and identity affirmation. The specific objectives include: (1) examining the ideological reflection and refraction of signs such as “girl,” “hot body,” “incel,” and “brothers,” observing how they produce deviant meanings; and (2) verifying how emotions such as hate, frustration, and desire are expressed, redefining rejection as violence against children and women. The theoretical basis articulates Metalinguistics and Cultural Criminology, considering discourse as a manifestation of the criminal phenomenon. The results indicate that, in this subculture, the child and female body is hypersexualized and sexual violence is stylized as a form of male affirmation. Rape, in this context, is not seen as a crime against the criminal legal order, but is reinterpreted as a means of gaining prestige among members of the organization