Abstract
The paper analyses the features of the Spanish criminal justice system from the perspective of the late -democratisation condition of the Spanish polity. The text sees an almost uninterrupted expansion ism and a relatively high level of severity as basic traits of the evolution of the Spanish criminal justice system. Consequently, the paper examines those features from the viewpoints of legal reforms, institutional practices and collective perceptions and expectations experienced since the end of the autocratic period. Finally, the article investigates some reasons which may explain the relatively high punitiveness of the Spanish criminal justice system, before adding a coda on the changes of the penal system fostered by the Great Recession.
Highlights
Late-Democratisation and Penality in the Spanish caseA suitable way to introduce a case analysis on the Spanish criminal justice from the perspective of the democratisation process may be by providing basic data on the historical background
The Spanish sovereign mode of punishment appears to be wholly consistent with some theoretical frameworks aimed at relating levels of punitiveness with socio-economic and political models, Lappi-Seppälä's one (2011), which is focused on a wide range of European countries 26
The Spanish case may well confirm his thesis, according to which low punitiveness correlates with countries with consensual and corporatist political cultures, high levels of social trust and institutional legitimacy and strong welfare states
Summary
Late-Democratisation and Penality in the Spanish caseA suitable way to introduce a case analysis on the Spanish criminal justice from the perspective of the democratisation process may be by providing basic data on the historical background. In terms of characterising the post-dictatorship Spanish criminal justice system, its most salient feature may be its amazing expansion, with a very remarkable and almost uninterrupted growth of prison population rates, as can be seen below in Graph 1.
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