The Iberoamerican Legislative Criminal Policy in the Early 21st Century (La Política Legislativa Penal Iberoamericana a Principios del Siglo XXI)

Abstract

Latin-American criminal policy presents diverse common characteristics, which are more and more visible for the progressive process of integration and globalization. In the first approach one emphasizes that the deficient implementation of the laws there joins a legislative criminal policy characterized by the proliferation and abuse of special laws, with the consequent shortfalls of juridical safety and of legislative technical quality. But putting aside other aspects presented in this article, the most significant feature of the current criminal policy is the so called supravaloración securitaria, paradigm under which a notable penal increase takes place in response to the classic crime and to certain criminal figures that are extended to new environments, along with an extensive and intensive use of prison. Indeed it is a matter of a widespread feeling of a generalized lack of civic insecurity enhanced by the media and the punitive populism that makes the promotion of major rationality urgent in the construction of modern criminal policy and in accordance with the principles of a democracy.

Keywords: Modern criminal policy, punitive populism, generalized insecurity