History of Infamy: Crime, Truth, and Justice in Mexico
Pablo Piccato
Abstract
This book examines the construction of crime as a central focus of public life in postrevolutionary Mexico. It does so by exploring cases, stories, and characters that attracted Mexican publics between the 1920s and the 1950s. The problems of learning the truth about criminal events and of adjudicating punishment or forgiveness concerned a broad spectrum of the population. This book looks at narratives, debates, and social practices through which a diversity of actors engaged the state and public opinion around a theme of common interest. Narratives and media about crime and justice that are s ... More
This book examines the construction of crime as a central focus of public life in postrevolutionary Mexico. It does so by exploring cases, stories, and characters that attracted Mexican publics between the 1920s and the 1950s. The problems of learning the truth about criminal events and of adjudicating punishment or forgiveness concerned a broad spectrum of the population. This book looks at narratives, debates, and social practices through which a diversity of actors engaged the state and public opinion around a theme of common interest. Narratives and media about crime and justice that are still in place today developed during the decades of the twentieth century examined in the book: broadly shared ideas about impunity and corruption, extrajudicial punishment and the public meaning of homicide, and the divorce of legal justice and the truth.
Keywords:
crime,
Mexico,
journalism,
homicide,
crime fiction,
jury trials,
justice,
truth,
impunity
Bibliographic Information
| Print publication date: 2017 |
Print ISBN-13: 9780520292611 |
| Published to California Scholarship Online: January 2018 |
DOI:10.1525/california/9780520292611.001.0001 |
