Derecho penal y exclusión social

la legitimidad del castigo del excluido

Abstract

Criminal Law and Social Exclusion: the Legitimacy of Punishing the Excluded

The problem of social exclusion –situation of those who are excluded from social goods and services that lead to a basic development of personality– challenges the legitimacy of the social and the criminal system. Mainly because it means that in the same society there are individuals with the status of person –“ordinary”, included citizen– and others who, since they are deprived of the rights to fulfill that status, are excluded from it. To avoid treating them as an instrument, especially in offenses connected more to citizenship than to dignity, the article proposes the attenuation or exclusion of punishment, as there is also a diminution of blameworthiness. Since the offence is not only grounded on a deficit of motivation on the part of the author, but also in a deficit of socialization attributable to the social system itself, there is a sort of co-responsibility of the two in the commission of the offence.