Analisis critico de las ultimas modificaciones legales en materia de hurto-falta

Abstract

Law Nº 19.950, which is mainly related to a more ruthless repression against shoplifting committed in supermarkets and big department stores every day, was published in the Government’s Gazette on June 5, 2004. Among other things, this new law reduces the limit between larceny-misdemeanor and larceny-minor offense from one to a half monthly tax unit; substitutes a penalty with loss of freedom for the bail the larceny-misdemeanor had been assigned; and determines to impose penalties on the acts prior to the perpetration of the crime itself. The author fiercely criticizes this new law for not respecting the principles of injuriousness and proportionality, for introducing a clear example of the so-called "joinder" offenses, and for constituting a manifestation of the so-called "administrization" of the criminal law.