Artificial intelligence has become one of the most relevant technological phenomena in daily life, so criminal law and contemporary criminal sciences are not exempt from it. Its incorporation into social, economic, institutional and governmental life has modified the ways of producing information, investigating crimes, managing risks, preventing behavior, automating decisions and building new rationalities of control. Faced with this scenario, legal-criminal reflection requires a constant, critical and specialized approach, since artificial intelligence poses substantive challenges for criminal responsibility, criminal policy, evidence, digital security, crime prevention, the protection of human rights and the legitimacy of public decisions.

The National Institute of Criminal Sciences presents this new issue of the Mexican Journal of Criminal Sciences entitled "Artificial Intelligence and Criminal Law", as part of an institutional effort aimed at strengthening the study of technological transformations in the criminal field. This edition is part of a line of work that INACIPE has progressively promoted through its academic programs, courses, updating activities and specialized spaces on the subject, such as the Permanent Seminar on Criminal Law and Artificial Intelligence. These initiatives have contributed to generating conditions for an increasingly rigorous reflection on the links between artificial intelligence, criminal law, criminology, criminal policy and human rights.

The publication of this issue reflects a process of academic and institutional maturation that advances along with the development and use of artificial intelligence. This technology requires its own categories of analysis, rigorous conceptual frameworks and a thorough review of its consequences in criminal sciences. Its study requires attention to its technical possibilities and its legal, ethical, social and institutional risks. In this sense, this edition contributes to scientific knowledge about the relationship between law, criminal sciences and emerging technologies.

The articles that make up this edition cover some of the main dilemmas that artificial intelligence poses to contemporary criminal law. Its relationship with civil liability derived from the wrongful act and the legal forms of attribution of liability for damages caused by automated systems are analyzed. The role of artificial intelligence in criminal activity and crime control is also examined, with attention to its presence in new criminal dynamics and in institutional strategies for prevention, detection and investigation.

Likewise, a reflection on the genetics of the algorithm in criminal policy is incorporated, based on heredity, bias and punitive rationality in the era of artificial intelligence. This approach makes it possible to problematize the reproduction of previous patterns of selectivity, discrimination or control when algorithmic systems are incorporated into public decision-making processes without sufficient transparency, effective human oversight and democratic controls. Along the same lines, criminal liability in automated decisions is addressed, based on a central question: who responds when artificial intelligence makes mistakes?

The edition also raises one of the most sensitive debates for criminal justice: can artificial intelligence judge in criminal matters? This question refers to the constitutional, ethical, and human limits of the jurisdictional function, since judging implies evaluating evidence, interpreting norms, weighing rights, understanding contexts, motivating decisions, and assuming institutional responsibility before people subjected to the punitive power of the State.

Finally, within the monographic studies, a reflection is included on the relationship between hidden figures, digital security and models of integral peace in Mexico, which broadens the discussion to the structural problems of criminal information, trust and institutional challenges, crime prevention and construction of security in digital environments.

In addition to the studies dedicated to the thematic axis of artificial intelligence and criminal law, this edition incorporates, in its Varia section, research on child sexual abuse and sexual exploitation; the phenomenology of theft in Mexico; and the social impact of the law criminalizing violence against women in Costa Rica. The review of this issue is dedicated to the work Human Waste: Between the Nuda Vita and Criminal Policy, by Italy Cianni, which leads us to reflect on the exclusion, vulnerability and penal administration of precarious populations.

With this issue, the National Institute of Criminal Sciences reaffirms its commitment to academic innovation, scientific research and the construction of specialized knowledge in the face of the challenges that artificial intelligence poses to criminal law and criminal sciences. We invite readers to browse these pages with the conviction that understanding artificial intelligence from the perspective of criminal sciences is essential to guide its use, warn of its risks and strengthen a criminal justice system compatible with fundamental rights.

Oswaldo R. Aguilar Rivera