Abstract

SONTAG, Ricardo  and  BOTELHO, Luís Otávio Silva. “The relativity of the concepts of public outrage to decency and to public morality”. History of the criminalization of pornography (and other obscenities) in Brazil (1830-1923). Rev. hist. derecho [online]. 2021, n.62, pp.1-50. ISSN 1853-1784.

How did the Brazilian legal system deal with obscene writings, objects and acts between 1830 (when the first independent Brazilian penal code was issued) and 1923 (when the press law significantly changed the penal treatment of obscene publications)? Assuming the idea of criminalization as a historically contingent process rooted in historically localized cultures, it was possible to detect a deterioration of the liberal patterns of criminalization when the pornographic market in Brazil was increasing and when international articulation against obscene publications was growing, which involved, among other aspects, the problem of the distinction between pornography and art. The relative vagueness of the legal notion of obscenity throughout the whole period provided a window of access to the margins of the modern notion of legality and allowed us to address how law itself historically defines its relationships with other normativities and historical contingencies.

Keywords : History of criminal law; pornography; obscene publications; obscene acts; outrage to public morality.

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