At the knife’s risk: honor killings and private justice in Fortaleza and its surroundings (XVIII-XIX centuries)

Abstract

This article aims, through the analysis of criminal and legal sources of Ceará from the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, to understand the relationship between crime and private justice, highlighting the crimes against honor. The connections between instigators and agents are evident in the sources, as it is possible to verify in the Notices of Complaint and Denunciation which allow us to examine the plots involving men and women in a society ruled by violence and where those who had power and possessions had justice on your side. The slowness of justice and a sense of impunity led many people to take justice into their own hands, ending up their daily quarrels violently. As a way to curb the violence and maintain the monopoly of the justice administration, the State has taken several measures such as increased surveillance of individuals, especially vagrants constantly involved in violent crimes and who acted under the tutelage of a powerful protector. The main objective of this article is to understand the processes that made the violent action the main form of conflict resolution in Ceará and how this trivialization of violence became a hallmark of the Ceará’s identity. Keywords: Criminality, Private Justice, Gender.