Crime, Society and the State in the 19th Century Philippines

Crime, Society, and the State in the Nineteenth-Century Philippines is more than simply a study of deviant behavior in the nineteenth-century Philippines. The very question of determining criminality not only exposes the dominant values of society, but also reveals much about the character of popular culture. Above all, it was in the courtroom that the world view of the colonizer and the colonized came into direct contact and confrontation. Here, common people gained first-hand experience of the power of the state over their own life, usually to their material and personal detriment. Here, too, the state was able to assess personal behavior from a wider perspective than that of justice, a perspective that not infrequently exceeded the legitimate authority of the state. Just who committed criminal actions and why, and just why they were deemed reprehensible and by whom, provides not only insight into the behavior of the ordinary individual, but also reveals much about the policy and practice of Spanish colonialism in the Philippines.