Encierro y exclusión en el mundo global

Abstract

This article studies the process of repressive restructuration in today's world, within the general context of the reorganization of hegemonic power. Various elements, such as aggravation of punishments , lowering of the minimum age for penal punishments, obsession for total security, "zero tolerance" -in short, the criminalization of social protest-, seem to indicate that the confinement of certain marginalized social groups, and the consequent growth of the penal population, are functional to the new global and state model in countries like the USA, Eastern Europe and Latin America. Following this scheme of analysis, this article invites to rethink the relationship between the economic-political model and the penitentiary model in the world of globalization.