Criminal Intervention and Risks of Current Society: Manifestations and Problems of Punitive Expansion in New and Traditional Areas of Criminality
Criminal Intervention and Risks of Current Society: Manifestations and Problems of Punitive Expansion in New and Traditional Areas of Criminality

Summary/Abstract: The exchange of global economic flows and the high degree of development of technological processes have turned globalisation and technical progress into the current pillars of our society. The advantages and opportunities they offer are twofold, since they can both improve the quality of life and serve as an opportunity for unlawful and, specifically, criminal conduct. The concept of risk has consequently assumed a leading role in shaping the social model of advanced modernity. At the same time, it has given rise, as a normative reaction, to a demand for security on the part of citizens, which in the sphere of Criminal Law is manifested in an expansive tendency in its scope of intervention. However, the risks we are currently facing have different origins and characteristics, so that the expansive response of Criminal Law is neither unified, nor does it pose the same problems. Thus, based on the characteristics of today”s society and the risks that threaten it, this paper is based on the differentiation of the expansive currents of Criminal Law developed on the basis of new preventive needs. Specifically, it is possible to identify two punitive trends: one, whose function is to respond to new forms of criminality arising in the light of technical and scientific progress; the other, which affects and intensifies criminal intervention in traditional areas of delinquency, linked to marginalisation and social exclusion. Having set out this framework, we will analyse some of the main manifestations of both currents in the Spanish Criminal Code and the problems of legitimisation and attribution of criminal responsibility that they raise.

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