INFANTICIDE IN THE CRIMINAL CODE OF 1852 LEGAL REGULATION AND THE COURT PRACTICES IN CROATIA AND SLAVONIA

Cilj je rada analizirati uređenje čedomorstva u Kaznenom zakonu o zločinima, prijestupima i prekršajima iz 1852., koji se primjenjivao u Hrvatskoj i Slavoniji od 1852. do 1929., kada je zamijenjen Krivičnim zakonikom za Kraljevinu Jugoslaviju. Osim normativnog okvira, analizira se i relevantna sudska praksa, pod čime se misli na slučajeve u kojima su sudovi razložili načelna shvaćanja o čedomorstvu. Primjeri iz sudske prakse prvotno obuhvaćaju presude najviših sudova, ali i slučajeve koji su u tadašnjim komentarima kaznenog zakona i udžbenicima bili istaknuti kao relevantni za određivanje spornih obilježja bića čedomorstva. Ti primjeri upućuju na načine i motive počinjenja te pružaju uvid u osobna i sociodemografska obilježja počiniteljica. Napokon, analizom statističkih publikacija, u onom opsegu koji dopušta statistika kao kriminološka metoda, upućuje se na rasprostranjenost i učestalost čedomorstva na području Hrvatske i Slavonije. Statistički podatci ne daju potpunu sliku jer je u prirodi čedomorstva potaja pa je tamna brojka (tj. nepoznati i neotkriveni kriminalitet) sigurno visoka.The paper at hand explores the legal rules addressing the infanticide in the Criminal Code of 1852 in course of its application in Croatia and Slavonia from 1852 to 1929 (after which it was substituted with the Criminal Code for the Kingdom of Yugoslavia). The paper provides an insight into the legal regulation and legal regimes concerning infanticide of the time. Additionally, the paper goes beyond the legal rules by associating the hypothetical legal regimes of infanticide with the legal practice, i.e. with actual cases of infanticide which were brought before the relevant or highest courts in these lands, or even before the Cassation court in Vienna. Although the legal practice was never considered as the formal source of law, it substantially directed the courts’ decisions and stimulated the emergence of the relevant court opinions that addressed the unclear or disputed matters in the field of application of the Criminal Code in the field of infanticide. The author refers to the relevant commentaries of the Criminal Code and the books written by the relevant authorities because they emphasized the importance of the key meaning of certain legal rules or the courts’ decisions, which essentially clarified the definition of infanticide, its legal nature and most recognizable characteristics. The actual court cases reveal motives and means by which the criminal act was committed. They provide an insight into the specific personal, social and demographic background of women who committed infanticide. The research which is written down in this paper substantially relies on the reliable statistical data that may be utilised as the method of criminalistics research. Such method recovers the widespread and the frequency of occurrence of that crime in the territories of Croatia and Slavonia. The data at hand, of course, do not provide a full image because there are many indications that “the dark numbers” concerning this particular type of criminality were high, i. e. even higher than the cases which eventually came before the courts and were therefore recorded in the official criminal statistics