Prevención del delito y teorías criminológicas: tres problematizaciones sobre el presente

Any crime prevention strategy implies, explicitly or implicitly, the question about what crime is, the causes of it and how to avert it. In this paper we will focus on set, thru criminological theories, the “concepts” that have been renewal to build different answers to such questions, particularly on crime prevention’s policies in contemporary Argentina. We suggest three axes: first, the criminal positivist sociology of Enrico Ferri, particularly his idea of “ penalties equivalent,”; second, the discussion about crime prevention in the “Chicago School”, specially on Thrasher Frederich’s work; and finally, “multi-agency intervention” idea of the left realist criminology, especially Jock Young, Roger Matthews and John Lea. Such productions have in common the fact that the three have specifically discussed the issue of “crime prevention” on their work. The selection criteria and comparison axis emerges from a broader investigation, which aimed to analyze the modes of way that the association between crime and living conditions is addressed on the social crime prevention policies in Argentina, during the first decade of the new century. Three comparatives dimensions were analyzed: the way social policies appears on crime prevention strategies; the ways the target populations are delimited; and last, the ways the intervention territories are defined, building an specific idea of territory.