Abstract
Starting from the assumption that the security issue involves a number of subjects –philosophy, political science, sociology– whose pervasiveness is related to social, symbolic and cultural mutations about criminal issue, this essay analyzes, first of all, the many and various meanings of the security issue. In the second place, the authoress focuses on the different levels (global, within the European Community and national) of security, underlining the importance of genre perspective, so far lacking in the literature about this subject. Finally, she shows how the security issue affects considerably the criminal issue, determining its new borders: from criminalization of new behaviors to the rising of administrative measures that tend to criminalize specific categories and groups of people classified as potentially dangerous.