De maîtresse à domestique. La circonstance aggravante de « vol dans une auberge » au prisme du genre (1799-1815)

This article examines the concept of theft and, more specifically, one of its aggravating circumstances, theft from an inn. While the law of 16 December 1799 provided for an aggravation of the punishment if the theft was committed by the 'master or mistress of the inn', the penal code of 1...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Prune Decoux
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Criminocorpus 2025-05-01
Series:Criminocorpus
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Online Access:https://journals.openedition.org/criminocorpus/17314
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Summary:This article examines the concept of theft and, more specifically, one of its aggravating circumstances, theft from an inn. While the law of 16 December 1799 provided for an aggravation of the punishment if the theft was committed by the 'master or mistress of the inn', the penal code of 1810 took up this circumstance, masculinising it by removing the term 'mistress'. A study of the text and the debates reveals the performativity of the language of the law and its role in the gender order: the doctrine points to a ruling that chooses the qualification of 'domestic theft' and makes the wife of an innkeeper a 'servant' rather than a 'mistress' - although there was nothing to prevent this. Under the umbrella of the supposedly universal masculine, women are made invisible and denied the status to which they are not explicitly entitled.
ISSN:2108-6907