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No. XLIV/1 (2022)
Articles

Elite punitive populism and youth justice reform in Chile: Legitimizing a new political order

Populizm penalny elit a reforma wymiaru sprawiedliwości dla nieletnich w Chile: legitymizacja nowego porządku politycznego

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  • Daniela Rodriguez Gutierrez
Daniela Rodriguez Gutierrez
University College Dublin
DOI: https://doi.org/10.7420/AK2021.25

Published 2023-02-15

Keywords

  • Chilean Youth Justice,
  • punitive populism,
  • authoritarianism,
  • democratization processes,
  • Latin America

How to Cite

Rodriguez Gutierrez, D. (2023). Elite punitive populism and youth justice reform in Chile: Legitimizing a new political order: Populizm penalny elit a reforma wymiaru sprawiedliwości dla nieletnich w Chile: legitymizacja nowego porządku politycznego. Archives of Criminology, (XLIV/1), 171–196. https://doi.org/10.7420/AK2021.25
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Abstract

Chilean youth justice went through a drastic reform process during the 2000s, it was the second radical youth justice reform movement in the country since the creation of the Law of Minors in 1928. The decision to reform took place as Chile transitioned and stabilized into democracy after the authoritarian regime of the 1970s and 1980s. Superficially, it seems this is just one more way of embracing democracy and Human Rights. However, after in depth documental analysis of both the reform and the socio-political context, this paper offers a different insight and an explanation for the sudden relevance of youth justice, as a tool used by authoritarian political elites that then filtered into the political elite of the new democracy. In this context, populism played a key role in spreading concerns about youth offending and the need for a new youth justice which worked to strengthen the legitimacy of authoritarian practices in the new Chilean democratic order. It was an elite-driven populism that transformed youth justice into a key social and political concern.

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