Abstract

GIL VILLA, Fernando. The punitive social function in Latin America. Global and local circumstances. URVIO [online]. 2019, n.24, pp.10-25. ISSN 1390-4299.  https://doi.org/10.17141/urvio.24.2019.3762.

The article analyzes the circumstances surrounding the contradictory duality present in the social function of the penitentiary centers (punishment and rehabilitation) taking into account two elements: the adjacent debates about insecurity, and the discourses instigated by public opinion, political organizations and intellectuals. Trends such as the virtualization of delinquency, the change of emphasis from the physical aspect to the symbolic aspect of violence, the vulnerability of the middle classes (eventually populist electorates) do not allow us to predict a decrease in prison populations in Latin America or an improvement of their living conditions, despite the efforts of some judicial and criminal systems, as well as inter-state and non-governmental organizations.

Keywords : criminological sociology; human rights; Latin America neopopulisms; prisons.

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