Abstract

For several years, the procedural legislations of Latin American countries have incorporated various practices that, in theory, allow for a more effective prosecution of certain crimes. Among them, there are the so-called "repentance laws," which allow individuals under investigation for serious crimes to provide information about other participants in the same act in exchange for receiving lighter punishments or immunity. The objective of this work is to present the most relevant criticisms concerning these practices and analyze them from the perspective of theories of punishment. I will attempt to demonstrate that there are theories of punishment that would permit laws on "repentance," but I shall focus on the proposal of communicative punishment theories.