Abstract

RODRIGUEZ MORALES, Alejandro J. Dimensioning of the role of Police corps in a criminal system of guarantist nature. Rev. Crim. [online]. 2010, vol.52, n.1, pp.351-362. ISSN 1794-3108.

The article addresses the current perspectives of the role Police corps are destined to play, by putting in contrast punitivist or purely repressive trends with those of guarantist nature. A brief review is made of such conceptions, and the inconvenience of postulating a policy exclusively dedicated to reactive activity vis-à-vis crime is explained, thus advancing a proactive police model where prevention prevails, as founded on respect of all individuals’ fundamental rights and guaranties even of those who commit crimes, in order to succeed in refraining the cuts of fundamental freedoms that the adoption of a firm hand ("mano dura") criminal system where personal security is placed above those freedoms is supposed to cause, hence the punitive authority conferred by the citizens on the State being reverted against themselves, which implies that, rather than reducing criminality indexes, the multiple factors having a bearing on them, which are those that the State should actually worry about and take in charge within the framework of a guarantist model, are ignored.

Keywords : Police; criminal law; crime; criminality; prevention; police repression.

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