The current state of criminology in Chile: between amateurism and professionalisation

Abstract

This paper explores the criminological scientific community in Chile from 1990 to 2020. We use the sociology of scientific knowledge as a conceptual framework to apply to the Chilean criminology development stage. We analyse the criminological community using social network analysis based on the co-affiliation networks of researchers (N=62) affiliated with research centres, think tanks and universities producing criminological knowledge. We describe the actors involved in the network of researchers and identify the clusters shaping the main areas of the country’s production and dissemination of criminological research. The findings reveal a low density between scholars in the network; the existence of central research topics related to citizen security and criminal law; the presence of clusters (for example, juvenile justice and prison studies, among others), and areas that are emerging in the production of criminological knowledge in Chile (cybercrime, crimmigration). We conclude that criminology in Chile is still in the amateur stage. However, there are signs of growing professionalisation in the discipline.