A groundbreaking analysis of the relationship between politics, policies, and criminalization.This anthology scrutinizes the impact of law, society, politics, and penal populism on criminalization across legal systems, advocating for a reassessment of criminal law's scope. Criminalization delves into the prevalence of resorting to criminalization for social issues, urging for a critical review. Additionally, the book examines the normative foundations of criminalization, addressing 'over'-criminalization and exploring its empirical and normative aspects. The contributors also consider the roles of prosecutorial and judicial discretion, as well as State preventive powers, in over-criminalization. Any reader—whether scholar, policymaker, or citizen—will gain insights into the expansion of criminal laws and their consequences, making it a valuable resource for understanding the dynamics of law, politics, and power in criminal justice. Contributors include: Naveed Mehmood, Chirag Balyan, Shruti Bedi, Shubhangni Jain, Charles Khamala, Sébastien Lafrance, Sidharth Luthra, David McCallum, Garima Pal, Daria Ponomareva, Alok Prasanna, Yogesh Pratap Singh, and Ekkehard Strauss.