Life imprisonment and predicting behavior. An analysis on crime against minors and penal policy in Colombia

CADENA PERPETUA Y PREDICCIÓN DEL COMPORTAMIENTO. UN ANÁLISIS SOBRE LA DELINCUENCIA EN CONTRA DE MENORES DE EDAD Y LA POLÍTICA PENAL EN COLOMBIA

From time to time, a crime involving sexual violence against a minor is given excessive news coverage producing a strong social rejection and generating proposals for reforms to enlarge the scope of the criminal law. These proposals usually include the establishment of life imprisonment for such a crimes under
the idea that those who commit them are dangerous offenders, incapables of being rehabilitated, and, therefore, subject to incapacitation as the only possible aim of punishment. Then, this work, through the dialectic method and empirical research, analyses the scientific foundations of such proposals and,
consequently, its acceptance and use in penal policy, with special emphasis on the last of the constructions regarding that subject: the sexually violent predator. In this regard, it is concluded that future behaviour cannot be predicted and there is no such thing as incorrigible people.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.21017/Rev.Repub.2018.v25.a57