Criminality Patterns in the State of Chihuahua. The Case of Rustling in the Late Nineteenth Century

Cattle stealing was the most prosecuted crime in the state of Chihuahua during the last decades of the nineteenth century, although the high presence of this theft in criminal statistics was not due exclusively to the widespread existence of rustling gangs. There were so many laws dedicated to prosecuting and punishing rustlers, that crimes of other kinds were "resolved" according to these laws. This work draws attention to the fact that the great amount of crimes registered as "rustling" were actually conflicts related with the growing triumph of private property over rights of "use and passage" ("de uso y de paso") of small-and medium-scale cattle raisers who, according to the authority, carried out illegal cattling transactions