Representations and Discourses of Crimes against Property, Thieves and their Punishment in the Federal District, 1823-1840

Abstract

The main objective of this article is to study the representations, ideas and visions generated by the governmental and judicial elite of the Federal District regarding problems such as crimes against property, as well as the treatment and punishment of thieves, between 1823 and 1840. Its hypothesis is twofold: on the one hand, these representations of property crimes and their actors revolved around the consolidation of an ideal of property, which, although it did not emerge with the advent of the republic, configured the category of citizenship. Secondly, although the enlightened rhetoric regarding the punishment of such offenders had legal and juridical continuity, the exceptionality of some criminal laws left open the space for the administration of punishments contrary to the proportionality between crimes and punishments. The present proposal, therefore, seeks to study the class prejudices surrounding property rights and their violation, explained through the need to configure a new, moderately stable social and political order, which had the periodical press as its main organ of expression.