Mourir sur l'échafaud à Genève au XVIIIe siècle

摘要

Based upon criminal trials, this paper explores the decline of death penalty (will be abolished in 1874) during the eighteenth century in the Republic of Geneva. Low rates of hangings reflected the decline of murders and other violent crimes. The arguments elaborated by various Attorney generals in charge of prosecuiting murderers and robbers revels a precocious reformism arguing for the rehabilitation of the convicts by their incarceration. A great part of the judicial reformism developped by Calvinist and enlightened Attorneys from the end of 1750's, foreshadows the modernization of penology which will take place at the beginning of the 19th century.