Reinventing Infanticide for a Global Age: Gender, Race, Class, and Nationality in Infanticide Prosecutions in Venezuela

本研究关注的是委内瑞拉杀婴和相关犯罪的起诉方式，因为这些案件的刑事处理，适当分析，可以产生对法律重要主题的见解。在该国东部的三角洲阿马科罗州和首都加拉加斯进行的初步研究表明，控方和辩方的论点以及媒体的报道都侧重于与社会不平等有关的问题。在阿马库罗三角洲，“土著人”和“criollos”（意为“非土著人”或“国家社会”成员）之间的种族区别构成了生活的方方面面，当被告被归类为“土著人”时，种族是法律辩论的核心。另一方面，在加拉加斯，贫困和移民是更为紧迫的社会问题；因此，当妇女在首都因杀婴罪受审时，她们往往被描绘成“暴力环境”和“社会混乱”的产物，从而再现了贫穷的山坡“barrios”和无知、不守规矩的移民生活的主导形象。迄今为止进行的研究使PI能够就委内瑞拉的杀婴审判及其与更广泛的法律、社会、政治和经济进程的关系提出一些假设。一个中心假设是，案例讨论的内容已经从个体精神病理学转变为强调与社会不平等相关的结构性问题。由4名高级学生组成的研究小组将于2000年夏季在全国各地进行为期3个月的研究。然后将使用话语分析技术对收集到的数据进行分析，以检验在初步研究中产生的研究假设。

This research is concerned with the way infanticide and related crimes are prosecuted in Venezuela because the criminal processing of these cases, appropriately analyzed, can yield insight on important themes in law. Preliminary research in Delta Amacuro State in the eastern part of the country and in the capital, Caracas, suggests that both prosecution and defense arguments as well as media accounts focus on issues relating to social inequality. In Delta Amacuro, where the racial distinction between "indigenous persons" and "criollos" (meaning "non-indigenous persons" or members of the "national society") structures all aspects of life, race lies at the heart of legal arguments when defendants are classified as "indigenous." In Caracas, on the other hand, poverty and immigration are much more pressing social issues; thus, when women are tried for infanticide in the capital they are often depicted as products of an "environment of violence" and "social disorganization," thereby reproducing dominant images of life in poor hillside "barrios" and of ignorant, unruly immigrants.The research conducted to date has enabled the PI to generate a number of hypotheses regarding the conduct of infanticide trials in Venezuela and their relationship to broader legal, social, political, and economic processes. A central hypothesis is that the content of case discussion has changed, from individual psychopathology, to emphasis on structural issues related to social inequality. A research team that includes four advanced students will work in a range of sites around the country for three months in the summer of 2000. The data collected will then be analyzed using discourse analytic techniques designed to test the research hypotheses generated in the preliminary study.