Abstract

BELTRAN-ABARCA, Francisco-Javier. The Path to the Decriminalization of Suicide in Mexico City, 1812-1872. Estud. hist. mod. contemp. Mex [online]. 2023, n.65, pp.93-120.  Epub June 26, 2023. ISSN 0185-2620.  https://doi.org/10.22201/iih.24485004e.2023.65.77805.

This article analyzes both the suppression of punishment and the Novo-Hispanic juridical definition of suicide as a crime in nineteenth-century Mexico, in accordance with the liberal principle related to the social utility of punishment, as well as how these changes impacted the administration of justice in Mexico City. It is here documented-through the analysis of judicial files, law manuals, and the press-how the abolition of punishment came first, and the suppression of the act’s criminal quality came later. This lag in turn caused confusion and disparities both in civil and in ecclesiastical judicial instances, when processing those who had committed suicide or had attempted to do so.

Keywords : crime; criminal justice; ecclesiastical justice; derecho de transición; secularization.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )