An introduction to the birth of criminal positivism in Europe and Latin America at the end of the 19th century: rise and resistance

Abstract

In the Western world, the end of the 19th century is marked by the birth of criminology. This new discipline, which, from the outset, was created as an auxiliary science to criminal law, calls into question the traditional criminal law which was the dominating theory and practice of the time. This new “truth regime” on crimes, criminals and sentences, in the Foucauldian sense of the term, arises in a specific context from an epistemological, political and legal point of view.