The work raises a number of reflections on the consequences and constraints that the political change in our country is bringing about the issue of crime and its legal treatment, which cannot be considered regardless of the correlation of forces that determines the process of democratic development. An ‘alternative’ approach to the issue is possible only by placing politico-criminal projects within a broader framework of ‘social policy’, with constitutional principles as a legal basis. In this context, criminal law has a positive role limited to its nature as a ‘last resort’, and it is therefore necessary to review the interests which are the subject of its protection and the ways in which it is exercised, with a separate system of penalties.