Sistema Regional de Información
en línea para Revistas Científicas de América Latina,
el Caribe, España y Portugal

Stalking was included in our Criminal Code by the LO 1/2015, 30 March 2015. This offence punishes a series of heterogeneous conducts that, due to their repetition, are likely to disrupt the lives of third persons. The aim of this research is to analyse whether the aforementioned offence (art. 172 ter CP) provides an adequate response to this phenomenon. To this end, all the stalking judgments issued by the  provincial Courts included inthe CENDOJ database from 1 January 2016 to 31 July 2020 (N = 236) wereanalysed. According to the results obtained, in 90.7% of the cases the stalker is a man, but the victim is a woman in 86% of the judgments. In most of the decisions (67.8%) there was also a previous romantic  relationship between both. The average duration of the predatory behaviour in the cases that reach the courts is about 6 months and 28% of them are cyberstalking cases. Finally, among the main results, it was found that convictions for this crime do not reach 45% of the total number of judgments handed down by the Provincial Courts. After comparing the results obtained here with the data on prevalence, it can be concluded that the cases of stalking handled by the Spanish criminal courts do not coincide with the phenomenon.

This paper aims to analyze article 526 of the Spanish Penal Code from a Criminal Policy perspective. To do this, it focuses on the study of the legalinterest beyond this criminal offence as a core element for the interpretation of the corpse desecration offences. In this sense, and for structural purposes, this article is organized in three parts. The first  section presents the main academiccontributions that have been made in this field. Following this, the authoroutlines his own perspectives and interpretations of art. 526 protected legal interest. Finally, a concluding remarks section is included in order to draw up some considerations that find a better place in this final section.

This paper makes a critical reflection on the crime of incitement to hatred as an autonomous criminal type, since it is the discriminatory effects that, in accordance with the principles that inform Criminal Law, should be addressed in this criminal category. These behaviors, rather than being based on a feeling such as hatred, as the latest neuroimaging studies point out, are grounded in the assumption of stereotyped prejudices capableof being controlled.

Homelessness has traditionally been conceived as an eminently male phenomenon. However, a growing body of research is making female homelessness more visible. Numerous differential features have been found between homeless women and men that evince the need for incorporating the gender perspective to studies on this issue and to the design of  reventive and intervention strategies, pas well as for adapting care resources and services to the specific needs of women. In support of the above, this paper, on the basis of the national sample drawn from 2012 National Institute of Statistics’ Survey of Homeless People, found several differences concerning family history and personal background, living conditions and discrimination and victimisation events between homeless women and men. One of the most noteworthy results is the greater prevalence of experiences with  violence among women throughout their life courses.

The authors analyze the proceedings in Italy and Argentina against the “Plan Condor”. In particular, they analyze which modes of liability have been applied for crimes committed as fragments of a criminal macro-system, which is the  phenomenon in relation to which international criminal law has been developed, using the tools of Italian criminal law, which adopts a unitary model, and Argentine criminal law, which adopts a differentiating model. On the basis of this analysis, they reflect on the suitability of such normative models to reflect the  particularities of those events, not only in order to satisfy the claim to  reconstruct them historically, but also in order to guarantee that all  participants are punished in accordance with the extent of their individual responsibilities, withoutaffecting the principle of taxativity.

This text addresses the analysis of the relationships between article 66.1.8.ª and articles 66.1.1.ª, 68, 62 and 63 of the Penal Code. The aim is to verify whether the dominant position on this matter, based in part on a formal symmetry of the sentence  determination system, is consistentwith the principles of equality and culpability for the act. A special reference is made to the difficulties in conceiving art. 66.1.8.ª of the Penal Code as a general rule in attention to the disfunction that such considerationprovokes with respect to the figure of the participant in the offence.

Book review: GIULIA LANZA, INDIRECT PERPETRATION AND ORGANISATIONSHERRSCHAFTSLEHRE. AN ANALYSIS OF ARTICLE 25 (3) OF THE ROME STATUTE IN LIGHT OF THE GERMAN DIFFERENTIATED AND ITALIAN UNITARIAN MODELS OF PARTICIPATION IN A CRIME, DUNCKER & HUMBLOT (BERLÍN), 2021, 286 PÁGS.

The number of offenders submitted to alternative measures to incarceration has been increasing in recent years, whereas the prison population is decreasing. The main aim of the present study is to analyze the implementation and enforcement of penal community services in Catalonia during the 2006-2020 period. At the same time, the effectiveness of these community measures in contrast to the effectiveness of prison sentences will be also analyzed on the base of indicators such as recidivism rates and the variables and factors associated with a reduction in recidivism. It is also intended to detect the problems derived from its implementation and enforcement, with special attention to the concordance with the purposes of the sentence. For all this, a quantitative and qualitative analysis of the documentary sample will be carried out, which is made up of the results and reports of previous research on said subject. Albeit certain errors have been detected in the implementation and enforcement of these measures, they appear to be more effective in terms of resocialization of the sentenced person than incarceration. It is hoped that these results may be useful for the future practice of community services and for upcoming investigations.

Criminological literature suggests that the court sentencing process is affected by several factors, either legal (and therefore, predictable) or extra-legal. The present study analyzes  which variables influence judicial decisions in cases of sexual assault and sexual abuse, by studying all the judgments handed down by the Spanish Provincial Courts in the years2019 and 2020. The main goal of the study is to determine whether legalor extralegal variables have a greater influence on the decision to convict orabsolve, on the time length of the prison sentence and on the amount of the compensation awarded. The study reveals that prison sentences are mainly influenced by legal variables and civil liability presents greater randomness, despite the fact that court sentencing criteria are usually concordant for both decision-making processes. Results also show the influence of various extralegal variables, which opens new research lines for future investigation.

Seven years have passed since the reviewable life imprisonment became part of the sanctions envisaged in our penal system, and yet it still continues to be debated. This penalty constitutes the most serious legal consequence of all those provided for in the Criminal Code; therefore, the recent judgment confirming its constitutionality is not a minor issue, not because of the penalty itself, but because of the criminal policy that underlies it: the criminal law for the enemy.