claudia passarella

The article focuses on the development of fingerprint and other methods of criminal identification in England and Norway between the late nineteenth and the first decades of the twentieth century. The research investigates both the theoretical value and the practical utility of criminal identification methods, by analysing their strengths and weaknesses in a constantly evolving scenario. To achieve this purpose, the article will examine a number of case studies, which gave rise to passionate debates in the legal world as well as in public opinion. Particular attention will be paid to two trials which took place in early twentieth century: these cases deserve special consideration because for the first time fingerprinting proved to give decisive evidence to establish the identity of the culprits. Such trials therefore opened the doors to a new era, characterized by the use of fingerprint technique, which in the following decades would become a most reliable identification method.

This article examines two notable British trials which took place in the late Victorian period: the case of Adelaide Bartlett and the trial of Florence Maybrick. Both Adelaide and Florence were accused of having committed the murder of their own husbands by administering poison. The comparison between these two causes célèbres focuses on the role performed by three main protagonists of the judicial scene: the defence counsel, the judge and the jury. The trial of Florence Maybrick opens the door to a further comparison between the English judiciary system and the rules enacted by other countries regarding the reparation of judicial errors and the methods of review in criminal cases. As we will see in the second part of the article, on the threshold of the twentieth century, the necessity for criminal appeal was the subject of a passionate debate between traditional rules and innovative reforms.

This article focuses on family crimes in Venice and the surrounding territory in the late nineteenth century. It investigates how juries judged criminal behaviours committed in the intimate world of domestic life, with special attention to murder trials, infanticide cases, incestuous relationships and sexual offences. The Giudecca section of the Venetian State Archive preserves the judicial records of the proceedings held at the court of Assize of Venice from 1871 to 1898, bringing to light fragments of human stories, to date almost completely ignored by research. Jurors’ deliberations in this kind of situations move from leniency to severity depending on the circumstances of the case, leading sometimes to unexpected results.

The administration of civil justice in Venice in the modern age is a field of research so far only superficially explored. The article aims to investigate this topic from a double point of view: on one side it defines the jurisdictional duties assigned to the main Venetian magistrates, highlighting the connections and the interactions existing between the different levels of jurisdiction; on the other side it proposes a case study in order to test the actual effectiveness of the trial in everyday reality. In this perspective the hereditary dispute between a noble widow and the nephew of her late husband contributes to outline the features of a judicial system that in the second half of the Eighteenth century was still fit to intercept the demands for justice coming from society.

Al giorno d’oggi le prove scientifiche hanno spesso un ruolo determinante nello stabilire la colpevolezza o l’innocenza di una persona sottoposta a giudizio, ma quando una prova scientifica raggiunge un livello di affidabilità tale da poter essere utilizzata in sede processuale? Nei secoli passati molte tecniche considerate inizialmente attendibili sono poi state messe in discussione dalla comunità scientifica. Un esempio eclatante in questo senso è la docimasia polmonare utilizzata per stabilire se un feto sia nato vivo o morto: il valore di quest’esame, ritenuto pienamente affidabile in età moderna, ha sollevato numerose obiezioni a partire dall’Ottocento. Altre volte sono gli stessi scienziati a suggerire prudenza, come dimostrano gli studi compiuti ad inizio Novecento dai medici impegnati ad analizzare i residui di polvere da sparo rintracciabili sull’area della ferita. Un processo svoltosi presso l’Alta Corte di Edimburgo nel 1927 è emblematico delle difficoltà riscontrate in questi casi. Anche le tecnologie più recenti - impronte digitali e DNA - ancorché dotate di un elevatissimo livello di precisione non sono infallibili. La storia dunque ci insegna a procedere con cautela: per comprendere le sfide attuali occorre interrogarsi sulle potenzialità ma anche sui limiti dello sviluppo scientifico, ricostruendo le tappe di un percorso che da oltre un secolo si colloca sul crinale tra tradizione ed innovazione.