Hurtadores (DCH) (Thieves (DCH))

No. 2020-22

This article analyses the crime of theft, understanding this conduct as an offense against the religious commandments as well as from the perspective of criminal law. Since theft was an infraction against both divine and human law, it was studied in detail by the different authorities. The article addresses how theft was understood in its different manifestations, the cases in which it constituted an offense against God from the perspective of moral theology, those in which the theft was considered a criminal act in foro externo, and the exceptional cases in which it could be considered licit to take someone else's property. It also addresses the measures aimed at the punishment or absolution of perpetrators and to the victims' reparation. Finally, it mentions the particularities that theft had in early-modern Spanish America.

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