The bat

Author: Brenda Edith Cetina Juárez

Degree in criminology

October 7, 2021

For lawyers, the owl; for doctors, a snake and for criminologists, a bat.
If we speak in etymological terms, the word bat derives from the Latin “muris caceus ala” which means blind winged mouse. So why is a bat that criminology identifies with? Well according to history the bat was a deity in the Mayan culture, this mammal being a nocturnal animal that can orient itself in the dark through echolocation with the help of its ears, it was considered a night guardian of the goods of the temples and tombs of the world of darkness and also linked to the 4 cardinal points, due to the sense of orientation that this little animal possesses, its figure in pre-Hispanic Mexico was of adoration, as a being of guide. As a symbolic fact the bat accompanied Xibalba in the underworld, as an analogy criminologists walk through dark valleys observing the worst atrocities that humans are capable of, but always with the firmness that we can be useful to society, with our knowledge.