Punitive Attitudes in Latin America

The purpose of this paper is to describe, initially, the population’s perception regarding some aspects related to the phenomenon of crime, the criminal system and the punitive response the State should supply (the population’s disapproving attitudes), bearing in mind the role of the mass media, since the latter perhaps represents the most important link providing feedback between social demand and the activity of the State with regard to subjective perceptions of criminality and the construction of a State with greater punitive reaction. A second part will analyze the scope of the expansive tendencies in criminal matters in Latin America and particularly in Argentina. With this aim, after outlining the phenomenon — from several theoretical perspectives — and summarising its characteristics in Latin America, we shall specify its distinctive features in our midst, as a way of sounding the main problems entailed in this legislative inflation — decidedly influenced by the multiplying effect of the mass media. This diagnosis is necessary in order to intuit possible strategies for criminal policy.