Paper short abstract:

Drawing on an ethnography conducted within a probation supervision program for young offenders in Chile, this article explores the challenges that anthropological research on crime faces when penal institutions exclude the neighborhoods and local settings of crime from their interventions

Paper long abstract:

In contrast to the system designed to protect the rights of children and young people, programs within the Chilean juvenile justice system lack a local approach centered on territories. This kind of "exclusion" of neighborhoods and local settings is expressed in the placement of programs, their norms, institutional regulations, and intervention strategies aimed at the social reintegration of juvenile offenders. As the anthropology of crime and criminalization aims to explore local crime scenarios for a reflective and in-depth understanding of phenomena, this article examines the epistemic, ethical, and political complexities encountered in ethnographic research within a program 'without territory'—a deterritorialized program. Based on the findings of an ethnographic study conducted in a probation supervision program for young people in conflict with the law in Santiago, Chile, this article illustrates how the exclusion of neighborhoods and local settings gives rise to a third space, distinct from both neighborhoods and penal institutions: the intervention. This new situated and time-bounded space reshapes the self-representation and social relations of youngsters, introducing new explanations about crime and promoting a set of moral norms and values, and behavioral requirements. In conclusion, the intervention not only redefines the crime and the experiences of youngsters, their relatives, and the professional and institutional actors involved in the process but also reshapes the ethnographic process itself. By illustrating the evolving dilemmas, negotiations, and frictions in the fieldwork, this article seeks to raise new challenges and questions for anthropological and ethnographic research on crime and criminalization.