Criminal Law

Abstract

This chapter deals with the history of criminal law in Latin America from the colonial period to the present. ‘Criminal law’ is used in a broad sense to refer to forms of institutional punishments, to legal culture, and to authorities related to them. We focus on the main traits, cultural differences, and ways of transition from a justice-centered system (dominant during the colonial period) to a law-centered one (hardly enforced throughout the nineteenth century in most new countries of the region). After a general analysis of colonial times, we describe the main features and common patterns considering different moments: from the independence wars until the first criminal codes and from this point up to the present. The chapter concludes with some remarks on the current challenges of the criminal justice systems in Latin America.