Atrocity, links and public punishment. Legal nature and procesual device. Rosario (Argentina), 1850-1900

Abstract

This paper studies how the atrocity, that is to say, the criminal qualification of the Old Regime continued operating in court during the 19th century. This can be observed from demands that were presented at the Common Court of Justice of the 2nd Constituency of the State of Santa Fe, based in the city of Rosario, during the second half of the 19th century, by homicides that have the aggravation by the fact that there is a link between the dead and the killer, and also, for suicides. The legal complexity of the period that is being analyzed and the incipient jurisprudence show “conceptual and legal” senses of the old Code, in face of the judicial decisions that fit the new legal models. Not only the lack of evidence, but also, some difficulties with the procedure, determined the decrease of penalties in the above mentioned cases, which continued being qualified as atrocious.