Elements of Punitive Populism in the Constitutional Reform Project on the Introduction of Perpetual Prison in Colombia

Abstract

Introduction: Punitive populism is presented as a phenomenon where legislation is made outside a study of criminal policy, on the contrary, the conjunctures that move social emotions are used to propose draft legislative acts that leave aside in disciplinary analysis of the matter to focus rather on particular interests, such as gaining recognition and therefore voters. Objective: The purpose of this research exercise is to unveil the possible elements of punitive populism in the constitutional reform project on the introduction of life imprisonment in Colombia, in this article it is postulated that punitive populism in contemporary times is detrimental to human dignity, which is the backbone of the 1991 Political Constitution. Methodology: With a horizon like the previous one, in the present research the position on punitive populism as manipulation of the social masses, both ideologically and in a repressive way, so that it takes shape within the paradigm of socio-legal research, whose method used is the socio-critical and the hermeneutic or interpretive, as these allow a reading from the text and contexts to produce new knowledge in the field of criminal law and philosophy of law, emerging new theoretical alternatives and application in the legal field, in favor of human rights, inclusion and human dignity.