Traditionally Slovenia had a comparatively low level of violent and organized crime and comparatively low imprisonment rate. In addition, it successfully resisted to punitiveness in all its aspects, starting on the level of prescribed sentences and incarceration rates. Recently, however, we can witness several new developments in its crime policy. First, we can observe the growing interest of populist politics in the crime policy issues. The fear of and the fight against crime has risen higher among the priorities of the elections campaigns and every day politics. Connected to that, the potential of academia and research institutions to influence crime policy decision making has been declining, as has been notably demonstrated in the haste passing of the new Criminal Code in 2008. Finally, as the EU is becoming more and more interested in harmonizing criminal law and crime policy, the extending criminal law powers of the EU erode Slovenia’s sovereignty in this respect. In my presentation I will discuss the relevance of these developments for the future.