Contaminación criminógena y desprotección institucional: el tránsito penal de jóvenes privados de libertad en Chile

This article offers a critical analysis of the scope and limitations of Article 56 of Chile’s Adolescent Criminal Responsibility Law (Law No. 20.084), focusing on psychosocial intervention practices within closed juvenile detention centers. Using a qualitative approach, it examines the impact of cohabitation between adolescents with emerging delinquent trajectories and young adults with prior experience in the adult penal system who are reassigned to the juvenile system to serve pending sanctions. The article argues that this situation—stemming from regulatory gaps and the ambiguous application of the law’s differentiation mechanism—facilitates processes of criminogenic contagion, thereby undermining the goals of social reintegration and the protection of the adolescent’s best interests. In response, the article proposes a legislative reform aimed at strengthening institutional segregation criteria to shield adolescents with minor offending trajectories from the criminogenic influence of highly institutionalized youth.