Sodomy in Chile: The Medico-Legal Expertise in Two Cases (1918–1922)

This article aims to highlight the type of legal arguments used in forensic expertise as judicial evidence in a Chilean context. The focus of this research lies in evidentiary elements such as confessions, witness testimony, and expert reports. To this end, two sodomy trials involving sexual assaults against minors in Chile in 1918 and 1922 will be analyzed. This historical work highlights how sexual assaults between men are absent from historical research on peripheral masculinities. This allows for an understanding of the legal and medical uses of the terms “sodomy” and “homosexuality” in Chile in the first half of the 20th century. Finally, it is of interest to examine the role of medical-legal expert reports in criminal trials when describing and classifying male bodies (aggressors and victims), thereby problematizing the coexistence of Christian, legal, and scientific ideas in the conduct of a medical examination.