Criminal Policy is the Law Subject devoted to seeking real and feasible solutions to problems, as serious as those discussed in this book. Issues such as the obvious authoritarian trait of criminal law, a reflection of its progressive dependence on political and media power. And, of course, also of some economic interests that evolve towards a neoliberal model in which figures matter much more than people. Or past problems not yet resolved, such as abortion, gender violence or drug trafficking. Additionally, new challenges such as organized crime and its close relationship with phenomena, such as corruption and white-collar crime, sky-rocketing in a global and interconnected world. Not to mention terrorism, especially the jihadist, a reflection, to a large extent, of the resounding failure in the integration of immigrants. Human migration, in turn, unstoppable, despite the increasing stubbornness of States to close their borders, thereby condemning thousands of people to death. The alternative to rotting in a refugee camp is sometimes only one: turning to organized crime seeking vital opportunities that the States either due to destination or origin, withhold. Because going from victim to criminal had never been so simple as it is now, and also with the back-up from the international community.
978-84-1378-324-6
ALTA CALIDAD EN INVESTIGACIÓN JURÍDICA
NIEVES SANZ MULAS
CRIMINAL POLICY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION
CRIMINAL POLICY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION
monografías
Nieves Sanz Mulas
monografías
CRIMINAL POLICY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION
COMITÉ CIENTÍFICO DE LA EDITORIAL TIRANT LO BLANCH María José Añón Roig
Javier de Lucas Martín
Ana Cañizares Laso
Víctor Moreno Catena
Catedrática de Filosofía del Derecho de la Universidad de Valencia
Catedrático de Filosofía del Derecho y Filosofía Política de la Universidad de Valencia
Catedrática de Derecho Civil de la Universidad de Málaga
Catedrático de Derecho Procesal de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Jorge A. Cerdio Herrán
Francisco Muñoz Conde
José Ramón Cossío Díaz
Angelika Nussberger
Catedrático de Teoría y Filosofía de Derecho. Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México Ministro en retiro de la Suprema Corte de Justicia de la Nación y miembro de El Colegio Nacional
Eduardo Ferrer Mac-Gregor Poisot
Juez de la Corte Interamericana de Derechos Humanos Investigador del Instituto de Investigaciones Jurídicas de la UNAM
Owen Fiss
Catedrático emérito de Teoría del Derecho de la Universidad de Yale (EEUU)
José Antonio García-Cruces González Catedrático de Derecho Mercantil de la UNED
Luis López Guerra
Catedrático de Derecho Constitucional de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Ángel M. López y López
Catedrático de Derecho Civil de la Universidad de Sevilla
Marta Lorente Sariñena
Catedrática de Historia del Derecho de la Universidad Autónoma de Madrid
Catedrático de Derecho Penal de la Universidad Pablo de Olavide de Sevilla Catedrática de Derecho Constitucional e Internacional en la Universidad de Colonia (Alemania) Miembro de la Comisión de Venecia
Héctor Olasolo Alonso
Catedrático de Derecho Internacional de la Universidad del Rosario (Colombia) y Presidente del Instituto Ibero-Americano de La Haya (Holanda)
Luciano Parejo Alfonso
Catedrático de Derecho Administrativo de la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid
Tomás Sala Franco
Catedrático de Derecho del Trabajo y de la Seguridad Social de la Universidad de Valencia
Ignacio Sancho Gargallo
Magistrado de la Sala Primera (Civil) del Tribunal Supremo de España
Tomás S. Vives Antón
Catedrático de Derecho Penal de la Universidad de Valencia
Ruth Zimmerling
Catedrática de Ciencia Política de la Universidad de Mainz (Alemania)
Procedimiento de selección de originales, ver página web: www.tirant.net/index.php/editorial/procedimiento-de-seleccion-de-originales
CRIMINAL POLICY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION
NIEVES SANZ MULAS Profesora Titular de Derecho penal (Catedrática Acreditada) Universidad de Salamanca Full Professor of Criminal Law University of Salamanca
tirant lo blanch Valencia, 2021
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© Nieves Sanz Mulas
© TIRANT LO BLANCH EDITA: TIRANT LO BLANCH C/ Artes Gráficas, 14 - 46010 - Valencia TELFS.: 96/361 00 48 - 50 FAX: 96/369 41 51 Email: tlb@tirant.com www.tirant.com Librería virtual: www.tirant.es ISBN: 978-84-1378-325-3 Si tiene alguna queja o sugerencia, envíenos un mail a: atencioncliente@tirant.com. En caso de no ser atendida su sugerencia, por favor, lea en www.tirant.net/index.php/empresa/politicas-de-empresa nuestro procedimiento de quejas. Responsabilidad Social Corporativa: http://www.tirant.net/Docs/RSCTirant.pdf
To my Mum, the best gift and the biggest void. I think about you every day and I’ll love you forever.
TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION.................................................................................... 15
Chapter 1 A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO CRIMINAL POLICY
I. CRIMINAL POLICY AS PART OF STATE POLICY..................... 19 1. Totalitarian states and criminal policy...................................... 19 2. Criminal policy in democratic states: crime prevention under a social and democratic rule of law............................................. 19 II. CRIMINAL POLICY AS A DISCIPLINE....................................... 20 III. POSSIBLE CRIMINAL POLICY PROPOSALS.............................. 21 1. Social policies: with special reference to education policy......... 21 2. Media policies.......................................................................... 22 3. Other legal proposals: administrative sanctioning law.............. 22 4. Restorative justice.................................................................... 23 5. Penal proposals........................................................................ 23
Chapter 2 CRIMINAL POLICY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION
I. FEATURES OF TODAY’S SOCIETY............................................. 25 1. The international protection of human rights and its limitations................................................................................ 25 2 The crisis of the welfare state and neoliberalism....................... 26 3. Globalization and the risk society............................................ 27 II. CRIMINAL POLICY IN THE AGE OF GLOBALISATION.......... 28 1. Symbolic criminal law.............................................................. 28 2. Criminal risk law..................................................................... 29 A) The Zero-Tolerance Strategy.............................................. 29 B) The bureaucratization of criminal law................................ 29 3. Enemy criminal law.................................................................. 30 III. THE NEW CRIMINAL POLITICAL AUTHORITARIANISM IN SPAIN............................................................................................ 31 1. The phantom enemy in Spanish criminal law........................... 31 2. Real crime and perceived crime: the cost of punitive populism. 31
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Chapter 3 THE DRIVERS OF CRIMINAL POLICY
I. THE INTERNATIONALISATION OF CRIMINAL LAW............. 33 II. THE MEDIA AND PUNITIVISM................................................. 34 1. Media, public opinion and criminal policy............................... 34 2. Agenda-setting and the relevance of criminality....................... 35 3. The framing technique and its influence on criminal policy...... 35 III. POWERS BEHIND THE MEDIA AGENDA.................................. 36 1. Political parties and the media.................................................. 36 2. Victims’ associations and other special interest groups (lobbies)................................................................................... 37 3. Media control and deontological ethics.................................... 37
Chapter 4 CRIMINAL POLICY IN THE PROTECTION OF LIFE I. THE PROTECTION OF LIFE AS A BASIC LEGAL RIGHT......... 39 II. HOMICIDE VS. MURDER........................................................... 39 III. THE DEBATE ON SUICIDE AND EUTHANASIA....................... 40 IV. PREGNANT WOMEN’S CONSENT AND THE CRIME OF ABORTION.................................................................................. 42
Chapter 5 CRIMINAL POLICY ON GENDER VIOLENCE
I. THE SERIOUS PROBLEM OF GENDER VIOLENCE................. 45 II. LIGHT AND SHADE IN THE FIGHT AGAINST GENDER VIOLENCE................................................................................... 45 1. The Comprehensive Law against Gender Violence and the State Pact................................................................................. 45 2. The choice of a gendered criminal law without a gender perspective............................................................................... 46 3. An almost exclusive focus on mild acts of male violence.......... 47 4. The victimization and protection of women against their will.. 47 5. Protection orders and false reports........................................... 48 III. TOWARDS A TRULY COMPREHENSIVE SOLUTION............... 49
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Chapter 6 CRIMINAL PROTECTION OF SEXUAL FREEDOM I. SEXUALITY AND THE STATE MODEL...................................... 51 II. FROM THE PROGRESSIVE REFORMISM OF THE 1995 PENAL CODE TO THE MORALISATION OF SEXUALITY....... 52 III. CHILD SEXUALITY AND CRIMINAL POLICY......................... 53 IV. CRIMINAL POLICY ON PROSTITUTION................................. 55 1. Between abolitionism and soft prohibitionism.......................... 55 2. Towards a regulatory model for prostitution............................ 55
Chapter 7 THE CHALLENGE OF TRANSNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME
I. THE PHENOMENON OF ORGANISED CRIME....................... 57 II. TRANSNATIONAL ORGANISED CRIME AND CRIMINAL HARMONISATION...................................................................... 58 III. SPANISH CRIMINAL LAW AGAINST ORGANISED CRIME..... 59 1. The limits of traditional criminal law....................................... 59 2. Inadequate response to crimes of membership of a criminal organization or group.............................................................. 60 IV. CRIMINAL POLICY ALTERNATIVES......................................... 61
Chapter 8 CRIMINAL POLICY ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION AND HUMAN TRAFFICKING
I. THE MIGRATION PHENOMENON IN THE ERA OF GLOBALISATION........................................................................ 65 1. Migratory movements and border closures.............................. 65 2. The over-criminalization of immigrants as dangerous people... 66 II. CRIMINAL POLICY ON ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION................. 67 1. The crime of migrant smuggling............................................... 67 2. Alternative criminal policy....................................................... 68 III. HUMAN TRAFFICKING.............................................................. 69 1. Criminal policy on human trafficking....................................... 69 2. Towards a comprehensive criminal policy................................ 70
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Chapter 9 CRIMINAL POLICY ON DRUGS
I. THE INEFFECTIVENESS OF THE CURRENT WAR ON DRUGS.......................................................................................... 73 II. PENALISATION VS LEGALISATION.......................................... 73 1. The progressive abandonment of zero tolerance....................... 73 2. Individual freedom vs. public health: (soft) drugs vs. alcohol and tobacco.............................................................................. 75 III. ALTERNATIVE CRIMINAL POLICY: THE PORTUGUESE EXAMPLE..................................................................................... 76
Chapter 10 CRIMINALITY AND POWER: CRIMINAL POLICY ON CORRUPTION AND WHITE-COLLAR CRIME I. GLOBALISATION AND PUBLIC CORRUPTION....................... 79 II. POLITICIANS AND BUSINESSMEN: DANGEROUS FRIENDSHIPS AND IMPUNITY.................................................. 80 III. MEASURES AGAINST WHITE-COLLAR CRIME: THE CRIMINAL LIABILITY OF LEGAL PERSONS............................ 81 IV. MEASURES AGAINST PUBLIC CORRUPTION.......................... 82 1. Reform of crimes against public administration and the crime of illegal party financing........................................................... 82 2. The necessary specialization, means and independence of judges and prosecutors............................................................. 83 3. International collaboration in recovering money and ending tax amnesties............................................................................ 83 4. Administrative control of public management and essential social awareness....................................................................... 84
Chapter 11 CRIMINAL POLICY AGAINST TERRORISM
I. THE CHALLENGE OF ISLAMIC TERRORISM: THE JIHAD GENERATION............................................................................. 85 II. INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAL POLICY ON TERRORISM....... 86 1. The concept of terrorism and its components........................... 86 2. Preventive wars and enemy criminal law as an international strategy against terrorism......................................................... 87 III. ANTI-TERRORIST CRIMINAL POLICY IN SPAIN AND ENEMY CRIMINAL LAW............................................................ 87
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IV. CRIMINAL POLITICAL ALTERNATIVES TO THE TERRORIST PHENOMENON.......................................................................... 89 1. The illegitimacy of the war on terrorism and the ineffectiveness of criminal law as the sole solution.......................................... 89 2. Parallel societies and homegrown terrorism............................. 89 3. For a criminal law that provides safeguards against terrorism.. 90
Chapter 12 CULTURAL DIVERSITY AND CRIMINAL POLICY
I. MIGRATION AND CULTURAL DIVERSITY: MANAGEMENT MODELS....................................................................................... 93 1. The French assimilationist model............................................. 94 2. The English multiculturalist model........................................... 94 3. The contradictory Spanish position on multiculturalism.......... 95 II. MULTICULTURALISM AND CRIMINAL LAW.......................... 95 1. Hate crimes.............................................................................. 96 2. Culturally motivated crimes (cultural crimes)........................... 96 A) Concept and requirements.................................................. 96 B) Management models.......................................................... 97 C) The necessary gender perspective........................................ 99
INTRODUCTION If there is a widespread feeling among those of us who work in criminal law, it is one of helplessness when we see how many people regard it as the solution to (almost) all of our problems, while ignoring the true reasons, mainly socio-economic and cultural, that lie behind crime; or worse yet, a sense of indignation when it is used for pure political gain, at the expense of citizens’ rights and freedoms. We live in turbulent times, when seldom a day goes by when we do not wake up to a news story that violently shakes us out of our western stupor: the murder of another woman by her partner or ex-partner; a fresh corruption scandal involving politicians and big businessmen who have taken advantage of their privileged position to plunder the public coffers; the rescue of hundreds of refugees in the Mediterranean and the chilling figures of those who ended up drowning on the way; terrorist attacks with dozens, if not hundreds, of victims, perpetrated in markets, restaurants, metro stations, or simply on a busy city street; or the dismantling of organised gangs involved in child pornography or the trafficking of people, organs, drugs or weapons. Businesses based on big profits and cheap lives are but a sad reflection of enormous global imbalances. Such issues, however, require urgent and viable solutions, rather than abstract or often absurd theories bereft of any practical feasibility. We criminal law specialists have already wasted too much time on such endeavors. I have always believed that the main task of university professors is to impart knowledge that has inevitably passed through solid investigation. Professors are mainly paid to perform research and transmit the wisdom that they have gained, awakening concern, curiosity and a critical spirit in their students. Above all, the latter, judgment and critical capacity, learning to filter the massive information that reaches us through TV, radio, press, Internet or social networks, which is often selected in a biased manner, seeking to distance us from what really matters or, worse yet, from what may prove to be real solutions. In any case, no subject could be of greater interest or concern to us, nor generate such a wide variety of opinions, as criminal
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policy. It forces us to take a position on problems that are certainly serious, such as the ones addressed in this work: for example, the growing authoritarian nature of criminal law, reflecting its increasing dependence on political and media powers, and economic interests that are evolving towards a neoliberal model in which numbers matter far more than people; or the great internationalisation of current criminal law, which translates into a criminal policy which bears an increasingly American imprint. It also compels us to confront old problems that have not yet been resolved, such as euthanasia, abortion, gender violence, child pornography, drug trafficking and prostitution, as well as new challenges, such as organised crime, and its links to corruption and white-collar crime, and terrorism, especially jihadist terrorism, which partly reflects Europe’s failure to integrate Muslim immigrants. And, of course, the great contradiction that has arisen between unstoppable migratory flows, on the one hand, and an obsession with protecting borders on the other. This cruel reality is sentencing thousands of people to death, while forcing others to turn to organised crime in search of the vital opportunities that states deny them. Does this book adopt a certain ideological position on each of the issues it addresses? Yes, it does, nor could it be otherwise. Criminal policy always stems from an ideological position, which may or may not be widely shared, but which must, in any case, be respected, as long as it is formulated in compliance with fundamental freedoms and rights. Just as there is none so deaf than those who will not hear, nor one so blind as those who will not see, we in the University cannot and must not allow ourselves to be intentionally deaf and blind, especially when such freedoms and rights are at stake. We academics have a social responsibility to be critical in defense of all people, supporting what is best for the society of which we are a part and to which we owe our very existence. As ZAFFARONI reminds us with his usual brilliance, “current judicial power is out of control. The scandal could not be greater and our reaction, as legal scholars, must be proportional. What we have in our hands is not merely a minor, partial or technical issue, but a dilemma between remaining indifferent, taking refuge in a normative world full of dogmas denied by everyday reality and becoming inured to dominant bureaucracies, or really assuming the responsibility of
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defending our civilisation, in line with respect for the person and our best and brightest tradition”. I hope that, in the present work, I can contribute to this latter goal, to which I have dedicated, with greater or lesser fortune, my entire academic life. Salamanca (Spain), July 2020. In the midst of the coronavirus pandemic and missing the most important person in my life, my mother.
Chapter 1
A CONCEPTUAL APPROACH TO CRIMINAL POLICY I. CRIMINAL POLICY AS PART OF STATE POLICY Criminal policy is a branch of government policy that refers to a measure or set of measures (legal, social, educational, economic, etc.) that are adopted by a politically organised society to prevent and react to crime. The nature of such political decisions, of course, depends on the form of government and the ideology on which it is based.
1. Totalitarian states and criminal policy Totalitarian states always regard crime as a betrayal of their ultimate goal, be it to create an empire, to maintain the purity of the race, to wipe out all vestiges of the bourgeoisie, or to achieve the ends of a holy book (e.g. the Koran, etc.). It represents a clear act of defiance against an unquestionable power, secular or divine (a Führer or an Ayatollah, etc.) or an attack on the unity and stability of the state, which justifies the adoption of any measure, even if it violates individual rights and guarantees. In this context, domestic policy becomes security policy, as the armed forces and police are licenced to use all means necessary, including torture, forced disappearances and execution, while rehabilitation is understood merely to be the absolute submission to the values and imperatives imposed by power. In short, there is only one true form of criminality in such a state, which is neither prosecuted nor punished: the monstrous criminality of the state itself (BORJA).
2. Criminal policy in democratic states: crime prevention under a social and democratic rule of law Democratic states have a completely different approach to crime, which is rooted in the idea that crime is normal and inherent in human
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nature itself (e.g. white-collar crime). In this context, criminal policy in democratic states is limited to keeping criminality at a sufficiently low level to allow for peaceful coexistence. How this is achieved depends on ideological tendencies: conservative governments usually devote more energy to repression, while progressive ones seek to prevent crime through social policies. However, these distinctions are becoming increasingly blurred in the fight to win over centrist and moderate voters (criminal law as a prima ratio or first resort). In a democratic state, the only legitimate criminal policy is one that respects fundamental rights while combining the models of situational prevention (or environmental intervention) and social prevention (or personal intervention). As VON LISZT once stated, “the best criminal policy is good social policy”. Consequently, any criminal policy that aims to be at least minimally effective must identify the causes of crime and seek to eradicate them (e.g. poverty, unemployment, lack of life opportunities, etc.). To this end, we currently have three types of prevention: primary prevention (acting on the social and situational context through educational, social, economic, housing and work measures, etc.); secondary prevention (intervention through the penal system, with the appropriateness and speed of the response being more effective than the severity of the potential penalty); and tertiary prevention (reintegrating convicts through appropriate prison treatment and post-prison assistance).
II. CRIMINAL POLICY AS A DISCIPLINE Criminal policy, as a discipline, studies criminal phenomena and the mechanisms that must be adopted to prevent them. Once this has been done, both its effectiveness and its legitimacy are analyzed through the lens of human rights, which may require an alternative criminal policy to be formulated. In this work, criminal policy is based on criminology (which is responsible for providing reliable data on criminality) and on criminal dogma (which seeks to improve and optimize criminal law by prescribing fairer and more effective formulas). Any state policy adopted against crime must necessarily be verifiable to determine whether it is suitable, with such an evaluation