About the discussion on the criminal law, "modern" and the society of risk

Abstract

In the work, an approach is made on the so called “modern” Criminal Law, underlying a sociological diagnosis having as a target the present post industrial European societies, in which a high technological development is seen, from which derivate some main and accessories risks of political, economical and social nature.
The reasons are extracted from this diagnosis, to justify some legislative tendencies ascribing to a clear expansion of the punitive intervention; expansion evidenced in the regulation of new ambits, through the Criminal Law, and besides, in the modification of the way in which this was operated in old sectors.

The doctrine has responded to this question indifferent ways: from the positions severely criticizing such a proceeding,to those recognizing the need for the penal system to evolve as to answer to the “new confl icts”, and existing all the same, some intermediate positions that accept, not leaving its limits, the requiring of its transformation to be able to answer efficiently to the problems of the present societies.

Therefore, it is synthetically shown the contour of a discussion that is important for the doctrinal work in general, including Colombian doctrine, which, doubtlessly, has another implicit diagnosis.