Pablo Piccato

A historical account of criminal practices and social reactions to transgression in twentieth-century Mexico, this project looks at crime as a public, social interaction with cultural and political consequences. Through a cross-disciplinary study, it examines trends, causes, practices, and responses to crime, through a century in which violence, corruption, and organized crime were at the center of political debates. Its main historical contention is that, in the absence of reliable policing and justice, civil society has played the central role in mediating conflicts caused by transgression and preventing crime. This role has been expressed in the public sphere, where debates about justice and crime created an open field in which multiple critical voices had a political impact.