vol. 54 núm. 2 (2012): julio - diciembre

This article describes the characteristic manifestations of the depression and anxiety state/feature, and their prevalence among inmates assigned to the “Programa de Inducción al Tratamiento Penitenciario” (Induction to the Treatment in Prison Program) of the INPEC, the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute at Bucaramanga, Colombia. The sample included 112 inmates with an average age of 33 years to whom the Depression State/Feature Inventory (known as IDER in Colombia) and the Anxiety State/ Feature Inventory (known as STAI in Colombia) were applied. The results show that 43.1% of the inmates committed their first offense between 8 and 18 years of age, and 74.1% had used psychoactive substances, while the records of depressive manifestations reveal that 16.7% rated them as a state, and 43.68% as a feature. On the other hand, in 8.03% of the cases, anxiety was shown as a state, and in 85.7% as a feature. According to this, the ratio of individuals with previous experiences having developed a symptomatology was higher than those where the imprisonment situation is a cause or a triggering factor.

The article attempts to analyze the impact of globalization on police corps and, therefore, on the functions they perform in search of a good coexistence. The current debate focuses on the effects of globalization on crime, and the strategies undertaken by government agencies in order to obtain better results in their fight against delinquency. The document shows how this has a significant impact on social, economic, political, institutional and cultural dynamics and, consequently, on the crime control policy. These aspects are of growing importance in one of the institutions that play the most fundamental role in this sense: the police institution. Finally, it is aimed at analyzing the likely future scenarios demanding a change in the National Police of Colombia.

The article focuses the attention on the most outstanding conclusions in the last "Observatorio de la Delincuencia" titled "Realidad y Politica penitenciarias" [Literally: Penitentiary reality and policy] (2012). This report analyzes the situation of the Spanish prison system from official data covering, for the first time, the Spanish State as a whole, including the regional Catalonian administration which has delegate competencies in prison-related matters. Showing and comparing the Spanish reality in this área is the general objective of this article, apart for explaining its high incarceration rates as compared with other European countries. The descriptive-quantitative analysis used in the examination of official data has been supplemented with the qualitative-interpretative study thereof from semi-open interviews with experts in this matter. The results show that Spanish prisons are overpopulated as compared with those of other European countries, this being the confirmation that the cause is not a higher number of incoming prisoners but the fact that sentences are entirely served in Spain.

This document approaches the subject of recent transformations in the punitive power from two analysis levels, first focusing on the description of the main contextual elements where changes occur, and secondly developing the general features that currently characterize these transformations taking place in the punitive power. The core purpose is obtaining a diagnosis serving to detect the main and present problems confronted by the legal-criminal and political-criminal discourse and, in this way, contributing to determine new relevant research scenarios.

Teeth provide very valuable information serving to identify individuals with the use of methods pertaining to legal and forensic odontology. At the prison system level, an inmate's dossier, because it is the offender's identity document, must gather and integrate any and all available information enabling legal authorities to make certain that they are dealing with the same individual they have registered either as prosecuted or sentenced, with all of the physical features likely to be found on the so-called anthropometric index cards for the purpose of preventing identity thefts or impersonation or errors in the imposition of punishments to offenders. However, in Mexico, at the time of reviewing laws, initiatives or (both state and federal) amendments in this area with respect to the registration of inmates and the constitution of their dossiers, no homologation exists of those data that the anthropometric card should contain, and in no paragraph or section whatsoever the dental card is taken into account as an identification means. In this article, the reasons why this card should be included in Mexican penitentiary facilities are exposed, since this kind of record is, in addition, a control option for both prosecuted and sentenced inmates and not only a potential matching record to be used in the case of recidivist or deceased infringers.

Women security is one of the main components of public security and coexistence policies incorporated in Medellin, Colombia. For this reason, debates have arisen around the utilization of the femicide concept in order to evidence those gender-based murders of women occurring due to the female condition while bearing in mind that violence acts suffered by women do indeed involve particular and disproportioned realities that differentiate them from violence suffered by men. With regard to the coverage of cases affecting public security of women in Medellin, the authorities are strongly required to acknowledge and understand this undeniable reality and institute the femicide concept in order to act accordingly.

This article analyzes the problem posed by the jury of peers ("jurado de conciencia") in the context of the administration of criminal justice in the Sovereign State of Bolivar (1860-1880) as envisioned through the reports of the general proctors, who were introduced before the Legislative Assembly and the Citizen President of the State; likewise, it examines its origin in Colombia while highlighting the role of jury justice in criminal matters and, within this context, its performance within the framework of the Sovereign State of Bolivar's criminal policy during the radical period.

A bibliographical synthesis is offered around the main risk and protection factors relating to the manifestation of violent conducts. More specifically and after having selected the most meaningful research studies made to this date, the essential objective of this work is oriented toward the analysis of those factors likely to affect, in the family context, the origin, development or mitigation of antisocial behaviors expressed during adolescence. However, and for the purposes of an introduction, the theories serving to support the existence of any such relationship between factors and behaviors are exposed as well as its continuity during adult life.

For some of the off enses against road security in Spain, the current punishment is the so-called "trabajos en beneficio de la comunidad" -TBC- (community benefi t work). But, in practice, implementation problems have been found and particularly, among others, by the increasing commission of traffic offenses and the lack of enough social work posts or vacancies required to perform these community tasks. Both the recent amendment of the Criminal Code and the regulatory legislation help develop the "TBCs" by means of road security workshops described in this article. They seem to give a purpose to this alternative to custodial sentences or detention orders and have become of utmost interest as one of the first experiences of this nature in Spain. The workshops that were developed on a monthly basis during 2010 are described, from their first year of experience in Guipuzcoa (in the Basque autonomous Community) by detailing their structure, dynamics and tasks of both training and public interest nature carried out by the inmates. The implementation of these workshops has mitigated the differences perceived in the application of the TBC punishment by providing it with a purpose and overcoming the criticism to which it had been exposed. These workshops have responded in an efficient matter to the preventive role they have been attributed in terms of road security.