El rol de la retribución en una teoría de la pena como institución regulativa

The article seeks to reconcile the recognition of guilt as the foundation of punishment with the achievement of goals through the execution of the criminal sanction. So, in the first place, objections are put forward to the harmonization efforts undertaken by eclectic theories, then a retributive conception of punishment is defended, whose compatibility with the achievement of normative restoration is adequately explained to the extent that punitive practice should be understood as a "regulatory" institution, whose particular goal requires its operation as if it were a "institutive" institution. Finally, it is addressed the problem concerning the lack of a real community of interests, as fundamental presupposition in legitimizing criminal blame, indicating that the existing distance between the emancipatory theory of an institution and its effective practical operation, must be understood as the mark of a deficit in our political practices.