Change, struggle and complexity within the Chilean penal field

• In Event: Penology panel

Abstract

This research focuses on the organisational field level of the Chilean criminal justice system, which is understood as a field (Dimaggio & Powell, 1991). This construct connects organisational and individual levels by delving into the material, formal and subjective aspects of organisational life.

The research uses the conceptual tools of institutional theory. In contrast to other applications of institutional theory in criminal justice, this research does not set out to investigate isomorphic processes of penal expansion. Rather, its focus is on the internal complexity of the Chilean penal field itself. This perspective allows ideas such as logics and struggle to be developed to explain conflicting and contradictory processes within penal organisations – here involving an extended retrospective case study (Flick, 2019) of the Gendarmería de Chile, the Chilean prisons agency. In seeking to capture individual and organisational responses to change, it undertakes a qualitative and quantitative analysis of prison governance and regulation over the last 100 years. It also documents the Gendarmes’ institutional biographies through extended interviews.

The question that guided the research was about change in Gendarmería, understood in terms of increasing levels of complexity in the penal field. Specifically, it provides findings on how Gendarmes’ social backgrounds have shaped internal practices and moulded organisational struggles. The research offers an account of Gendarmería’s organisational struggles shaped by external pressures and the complexity of its organisational field. It thus contributes to understanding the peculiarity and complexity of the relationship between Gendarmería and the penal field in the Chilean context. Finally, it offers insights into the struggles arising across the organisation’s history and considers how this shapes its challenges, opportunities, and constraints to change. Accordingly, the research contributes to a better understanding of the complexity of the Chilean penal system by encompassing micro, meso and macro levels of analysis.

Author

• Pablo Carvacho, Catholic University of Chile. Director of Research, Centre of Justice and Society. Associate researcher at the Criminal Complexity Millenium