What about judicial punitiveness? A study of homicide convictions in Spain (2000–2013)

Abstract

Criminological literature has dedicated considerable efforts to identifying a common pattern in contemporary criminal policy developments, as well as discussing the factors that may explain these changes. Yet, the studies carried out thus far have almost exclusively focused on macro level analysis (political discourse and legislative analysis), disregarding the micro level; that is, the activities carried out by the agents in charge of supposedly putting into practice a new allegedly punitive control culture. The present study tries to fill, in some measure, this vacuum by providing knowledge of Spanish criminal court activity this century regarding homicide convictions. In short, our aim is to verify whether Spanish criminal courts have varied sentencing along the same lines as the (alleged) new punitive culture, or have remained oblivious to it, instead operating as a deterrent to its development. Furthermore, the study provides a detailed analysis of homicide sentences in Spain this century with the aim of identifying some explanatory factors regarding the final sentence.