ABSTRACT
The period investigated in this book ended around 2008, the year in which the current crisis in Spain is considered to have begun. This chapter updates what happened in Spain in the years of the financial crisis. Following the order of the book, attention is paid to the political discourse during the crisis, which blamed citizens for having spent too much and attempted individualising the problem even in the midst of a global crisis. Regarding the changes in the policies analysed, it focuses on the reforms of 2012 and 2015. In 2012, an important labour reform was introduced that provided continuity to one approved two years earlier. These deepened the trend of the precariousness of employment and the promotion of temporary employment. Social policy saw an increase in spending, although to cover benefits due to the high unemployment generated by the crisis. Furthermore, moralisation continued to be stressed. Penal policy saw how life sentences were introduced while many crimes were transferred to administrative law. This reinforced the trend of giving more powers to the police. The chapter concludes with a discussion about the consequences that the decrease in incarceration seen by many countries has for the postulates and validity of the thesis of neoliberal penality. In general, it is concluded that recent trends seem to continue the same line of expansion of punishment, although it is important to pay attention to the forms it takes.
