Meaning and social context of crime in preindustrial times : rural society in the North of Spain,17th and 18th centuries

This article analyzes conflict, deviance and crime in Cantabria, a rural area of northern Spain in the 17th and 18th centuries. From an initial consideration of power and crime under the Ancien Régime and from the still young history of crime in Spain, this article goes into the explanation of the social meaning of crime, discussing Michel Foucault's theory of penal law. These pages are an itinerary through the analysis of social struggle and crime, social order and conflict and, the different uses of justice and social discipline. In conclusion only a few criminals are to be found in rural Cantabria of 1600-1800, but many social deviants, and this was due to the hybrid nature of both justice and crime. Judicial discipline was therefore not repressive. Where, then, was the invisible hand which articulated all the repressive apparatus of which Foucault writes ?