ABSTRACT
The proliferation of migration into Spain during the early years of this century has grown, in a short space of time, into one of the most pressing subjects of our contemporary social reality; so a no less urgent preoccupation with the characteristics of the phenomenon in terms of its repercussions for security and social order has brought about a significant change in the penal system. Anxiety on the part of the media, society and the political establishment regarding migrant criminality, reforms in the juridical precedent approach to such situations, and the ways in which that model has been tied in with migration policy generally, particularly in terms of administrative sanctions, are just some of the areas in which the impact of this situation can be seen.
