Criminalidade feminina, teorias de gênero e processos-crime: o caso de Josefa Campos

This paper focuses on the criminal case involving Josefa Campos. Josefa is accused of murdering her husband João by poisoning him after a series of conflicts arose between the couple. The main reason for the fights is said to have been the amount of money received by Josefa, which, despite her possession of it, she did not have full freedom to use. In light of this, the aim of this work is to present the criminal process involving Josefa and João and to discuss the position of a woman in the role of a defendant before society at that time. The theoretical framework of the study is based on gender studies (Soihet and Pedro, 2007), race studies (Davis, 2016), and crime and violence (Bretas, 1991; Saffiotti, 2015). Regarding the methodology, documentary analysis (Cellard, 2007) and micro-history (Levi, 2016) were employed. The analysis demonstrated the importance of using criminal processes as historical sources, in addition to highlighting the differences in treatment between genders and a society that reaffirmed distinct roles in various social spheres.