¿Criminalidad de los pobres - criminalización de la pobreza? Análisis de dos conceptos recalcitrantes

Abstract

The eventual link between poverty and delinquency can be analysed by the backgrounds of the etiological paradigm: if and in which measure is poverty the “cause” of delinquency. In the tradition of the critical criminology it can also be used the paradigm of the labelling theories to ask where and how poor people are discriminated and criminalised by the social control instances. And, thirdly, both theories can be considered as relevant. This is the position of this essay whose objective is to make a balance of the current state of the discussion and research. For all this, before the theoretical analysis and the presentation of the state of the investigation it is firstly necessary to clarify the concepts of “poverty” and “delinquency. In the second part, the example of Germany is used to deal with the question of the possible criminalisation or discrimination of the poor people in legislation, jurisprudence and application of the law. Specifically, the problem of the imprisonment penalty subsidiary of fine penalty. As the essay shows, the execution of this type of sanctions affects fundamentally to the most socially disadvantadged people.