Congresos criminológicos internacionales y su impacto en los códigos penales de América Latina (1870–1945)

Abstract

Departing from the analysis of different international congresses concerning criminal issues carried out between 1870 and 1945 mostly in Europe, the article traces the expansion of the category of »dangerousness« (estado de peligrosidad) in Latin America at discursive and normative levels. It focuses on the particular role that these congresses played as tools for the universalization of norms and in the production of modes of subjectivity based on a racist social classification, which was widely accepted by Latin American elites.Thus, the presence of the Latin American delegations in these congresses gave rise to theoretical frameworks for social control and transnational criminal law regimes. The article shows how the construction of »dangerousness« as a transnational criminal legal-political concept could become an instrument of control and consolidation of a new world order.