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In Argentina, different social actors mobilized during the democratic transition, asking for the “democratization” of the police and of penal institutions. Their claims were not heard until the end of the 1990s. In the context of rising insecurity, the federal government adopted a crime prevention policy whose objective was “to democratize the government security” in order to implement a policy which was “more respectful of human rights”. How can this reference to “democratization” and “human rights” be explained? By charting the biographical trajectories of the actors who spearheaded this plan, this article describes the reconversion of knowledge developed in academic and activist arenas into state expertise.