ABSTRACT
Penal populism primarily relates to the realm of justice and the rule of law, the proper application of laws and the social conditioning that arises from improper applications. Unlike purely political populisms, penal populism is not necessarily anchored to a leader; rather, it constitutes a dynamic that some leaders or organizations, be they social or political, can exploit to generate consensus. The first studies on penal populism can be traced back to Anthony Bottoms's social criminology research. The first studies on penal populism focused on the role of justice in specific English electoral campaigns. Successive studies, especially by John Pratt, went beyond electoral cases and explored penal populism in its different articulations, painting it as a more complex phenomenon which arises from the irrational and non-functional juxtaposition of the justice sphere, the political one and public opinion. Pratt identified some specificities of penal populism such as glamourization, destatisticalization and restorative and reparative penalties.
