Il delitto, la legge, la pena.

Prisons are exploding all over the world. The number of inmates increases despite a substantial stability in the number of offences. Simultaneously, we witness a growing sense of insecurity among citizens as shown, inter alia, by the boom in the purchase of weapons for personal defence. In this context, to rethink the nature, function and philosophy of punishment is not a mere academic endeavour, but a necessary exercise in realism. This is the sense of the volume written by Vincenzo Ruggiero who, starting from the classics, critically examines the origin of contemporary justice systems and the very concepts of crime and punishment. He analyses the central tenets of the school of thought known as 'abolitionism', its theoretical origin and philosophy. Abolitionism, here, is not understood as an immediate programme for action, but as approach, a perspective, a methodology, a specific angle of observation which may offer an alternative to repressive practices and lead to the identification of something better than the current penal systems.