From repressive to preventive criminal law. A challenge to the intergenerational transmission of criminal violence

Abstract

There has been an intergenerational transmission of criminal violence throughout history that has led to the development of retributionist theories and criminal codifications based on punishment. Despite the efforts of classical school thinkers to reduce penalties and introduce guarantees, the old remuneration system was still applied. Nowdays, there is a decline in criminal matters that reached its máximum expression with the introduction of the reviewable life sentence. The resocializing purpose of the penalty has been replaced by incapacitation and punishment, which poses an important challenge that we can only face with a new criminal narrative that puts at the center positive special prevention as it is compatible with the rule of law.