Through the analysis of criminal reflection of the main enlightened philosophers, the author wants to show different arguments that from those positions can be given to the use of the penalty as a State’s mechanism, pointing out how dissimilar starting points like utilitarianism and retributivism has served since the Illustration of the basis of modern criminal punishment, despite of such foundation is not always, as it has been tough, a desire of humanize punishment mechanism.La exigüidad es un concepto que se predica de un delito que en abstracto se ha configurado plenamente, pero que en concreto, y en virtud del principio de lesividad debe excluirse del ámbito del Derecho penal. Su ubicación sistemática, y sus relaciones con las demás categorías del delito, son objeto hoy de un intenso debate
