This work undertakes the linguistic analysis of the criminal law text based on the criminal norms comprised in the Brazilian Penal Code. It aims at identifying their formal properties and at stressing some aspects of the syntactic structure of such norms and of the semantics of the devalue (negative value) reflected in them. The study intends to refute the idea (largely spread among criminalists) that the verb is the nuclear element in the description of penal types. This is done by demonstrating that the devalue focused in criminal norms often does not dwell in the verb. For, if it is a fact that the devalued conduct is usually conveyed by the verb, the devalued result lies basically on verbal complements and on adjunctive phrases in the type description. Thus, the verb, taken by itself, is usually insufficient to characterize the devalued human action/omission, particularly when the devalue resides predominantly in its result. In such cases, in determining what exactly the criminal norm aims at avoiding/repressing, the verb must be taken into account in association with its complements and with the adjunctive expressions present in the type description. In this analysis, four verb classes are identified, namely those of intrinsically negative, adaptable negative, neutral and adaptable positive verbs.