Evidence in Ashes. Defining and Proving Arson in Valparaiso, Chile, 1874-1906

Abstract

This article studies the criminal definition of arson and the problem of its verification in the criminal courts of Valparaíso from 1868 to 1906. I argue that incorporating arson into the Chilean criminal law entailed difficulties both because of its definition and the difficulties for collecting and analyzing evidence. Fires, according this research are daily events that progressively and case by case bases, reveal characteristic processes of the society in which they occur. This article intends to contribute to a scarce historiographical discussion in Chile and not to the current methodology on judicial verification of arson, therefore it is based on two types of sources. On the one hand, the judicial summaries for criminal arson recovered in the criminal judicial file
of Valparaíso. And on the other, the official documents corresponding to the criminal definition of arson are used with their theoretical supports. Finally, the article allows us to observe the specific difficulties that the definition of arson entailed and, above all, the problems of the systematization of judicial proving procedures.