ntroduction. Detention as Punishment and Detention as Regulation

The introduction exposes the relevant issues of the matter. In most Western Countries, crime prevention has become a central concern of governments of any stripe or orientation, and has been prominently placed on the political agenda. The reasons for this have long been known. On the one hand, the increase in the concern over crime is related to industrial and technological development, which opens the path to new forms of harm that can be inflicted on people unintentionally through negligence, imprudence or malpractice. On the other hand, the public's worries about security are related to the emergence of new forms of crime, or to the perception as new of traditional crimes such as terrorism, illegal immigration or organized crime.