How are the Prosecutor's Offices Organized to Prosecute Organized Crime? An Analysis from Organizational Theory

• In Event: Policing and Prosecuting Organized Crime

Abstract

The following work, from the framework of organizational theory, explores how the Chilean prosecutor's office is being reorganized to prosecute organized crime. In this way, we evaluate the departmentalization and interagency processes that would be taking place, inside and outside the prosecutor's office, for example, its tense relationship with the Police. For this purpose, we studied both the central level of the organized crime unit (national prosecutor's office) and some decentralized prosecutor's offices (N=6) called highly complex and organized crime prosecutor's offices. In addition, we study the recent creation of a Supraterritorial Prosecutor's Office for organized crime and complex crimes (12/22/2023). For the above, a qualitative methodology has been used that includes interviews with various (N=40) operators (prosecutors, criminal analyst, etc.) and the review of documentary material (regulations, legislation and other texts). It is preliminarily concluded, a). that the prosecution for the prosecution of organized crime does not follow an explicit organizational model, but rather a contingent one. b). - its reorganization is a mix of real needs and reaction to the populist impulses of the public agenda, c). - There is no clarity between the reorganization of the prosecutor's office and verifiable criminal-policy criteria.

Author

• Claudio Gonzalez-Guarda, Faculty of Government, University of Chile