IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CRIME (Translation)

This article is the translation of the title IN SEARCH OF THE LOST CRIME. The redress of past injustices has been seen in three main forms, which appear in our Hemeroteca. The first lies in law, in the judicial sphere, and focuses on former criminals through punishments imposed by tribunals charged with judging the past. The second is oriented toward the public life of the community and uses the instruments of politics or culture to address victims, offering them symbolic or material compensation. The third is directed at the community as a whole, with the objective of restoring the unity of a marked society by establishing the truth about its past. The most notable means are investigative commissions, such as the South Africa Truth and Reconciliation Commission; and their field of application is community memory. These different interventions in the name of justice also appear to have their preferred continents: continental Europe prefers judicial redress, the Anglo-Saxon world—from North America to New Zealand—tends to opt for compensation to victims, and Africa, Latin America, and parts of Asia favor investigative commissions. But these divisions are not exclusive.