Pull-push-dampen: How the state, the family, and the economy shaped the life courses of incarcerated people in Latin America

• In Event: European Developmental and Life-course Criminology Working Group, Panel 2: Qualitative research on criminal careers

Abstract

This presentation is a qualitative analysis of how three central social institutions—the state, the economy, and the family—interact to co-shape the life courses of incarcerated people in Latin America. We built our analysis on a dataset that includes repeat interviews with 420 people incarcerated in prisons in seven Latin American countries. We argue that in Latin America, the state, the economy, and the family function in a pull-push-dampen dynamic. The labour market pulls people when it needs them for menial jobs but when they become disposable, they are pushed either to the family to cover necessities or to the state to punish. Crime often occurs when both state and economy push people towards illegal sources of income and the family has limited capabilities to dampen these processes—or is ingrained in criminal organisations. Based on insights from Latin America, we argue that life course criminology needs to restore life course studies’ original emphasis on historical times and societal institutions. We also posit that these institutions need to be considered in tandem because they are linked and interrelated. Researching just one of them creates the risk of exaggerating their distinct role in the life course of people committing criminalized acts.

Author

• David Rodriguez Goyes, University of Oslo