Inspecting Pieces, Producing Papers: About Traces and Criminal Expertise Techniques

Abstract

This article seeks to unveil the many narrative, graphic and formal layers that give rise to the forensics reports on rape and sexual assault crimes, produced by the Legal Medical Institute of Campinas ( Instituto Médico Legal - IML), between 2004 and 2005. Therefore, I start from the graphic model that shapes these papers – its layout-form – to gradually show the narrative formula contained in them: pieces of flesh . Finally, by following these paths, I intend to show how the criminal materiality of rape and sexual assault is confused with the materiality of the sex of girls, boys and women who are taken care of at this institution.