THE CRIME OF A MAN CALLED CUSTODIO AND THE ESTABLISHMENT OF PENAL INSANE ASYLUMS IN BRAZIL

Based on an anthropological study of a historical nature, the article addresses the establishment of penal insane asylums in Brazil at the turn of the century through the examination of an actual medical-legal case that took place in Rio de Janeiro in 1896. Departing from this case study, the establishment of such institutions is analyzed against the backgroung of profound changes through which Brazil's judicial-penal system was then passing. At that time a scientistic and biodeterministic conception of the human being was introduced within the system - a conception which is at various levels opposed to the conception upon which liberal societies base penal law. According to the data presented, it can be perceived that in classifying some lawbreakers as "born criminals" or as "degenerates" (categories which were then being developed by psychiatrists, criminal anthropologists, or criminologists) a dangerous legal and institutional void was created, forcing the construction of the penal insane asylum as a kind of urgently needed "final solution".