The Moral Order of the Act of Killing

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.4322/dilemas.v14n3.43212

Keywords:

homicides, morality, moral order, cultural criminology, Venezuela

Abstract

In this paper, we want to show how the act of killing, considered one of the crimes that offends collective morality to a greater degree, can nevertheless be considered a justified act of a moral nature by a group of subjects serving a sentence for murder. We propose the notion of “moral order” to understand the regime of justifications, practical rules that govern deadly violence, and underlying value conceptions that emerge from the narratives of our interviewees. This moral order, which would thrive in conditions of exclusion, would be sustained by social networks that tolerate, reinforce, and regulate the moral codes associated with criminal violence.

Author Biographies

Andrés Antillano, Instituto de Ciencias Penales- Universidad Central de Venezuela

Professor e pesquisador do Instituto de Ciencias Penales da Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV, Caracas, Venezuela). É mestre em problemas sociais e justiça criminal pela Universitat de Barcelona (UB, Espanha) e graduado em psicologia pela UCV.

Chelina Sepúlveda

Professora da Escuela de Sociología da UCV e pesquisadora do Instituto de Estudios Avanzados (Idea, Caracas, Venezuela). É mestre em antropologia social e etnologia pela École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales (EHESS, Paris, França) e graduada em psicologia UCV.

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Published

2021-09-16

Issue

Vol. 14 No. 3 (2021): SET/OUT/NOV/DEZ

Section

Dossiê Violencia, Narrativa y Moralidad

License

Upon submitting a text, the authors retain copyright and grant DILEMAS - Revista de Estudos de Conflito e Controle Social the right of first publication, with the work simultaneously licensed under the Creative Commons License type attribution BY (CC-BY), which permits sharing of the work with acknowledgment of authorship and initial publication in this journal.