Symbolic Legislation and the Expansion of Criminal Law: On the Symbolic Nature of New Criminal Statutes

Abstract

Contemporary society is marked by a pervasive sense of insecurity, resulting from rising criminality and the emergence of new legal demands associated with the diffuse risks of modernity; this context fosters a punitive culture that, in turn, drives the expansion of criminal law; consequently, numerous new criminal statutes are enacted, which generally exhibit low effectiveness and fail to achieve their declared purpose of protecting legal interests, yet perform important political and ideological functions, such as reinforcing the values of particular social groups, postponing the resolution of conflicts, or serving as a state alibi in response to social pressures.