Apoyo social percibido y su influencia en el desistimiento delictivo: Evaluación del rol institucional

Abstract

The growing concern about how to deal with the problem of delinquency has fostered the emergence of a diversity of approaches that have joined the discussion, with delinquent behaviour abandonment becoming one of the most relevant nowadays. The goal of this study was to evaluate the current relationship between the type of perceived social support provided by institutional support services and its influence on the processes that persistent criminals who are inmates of a Prison Camp in the south of Chile undergo to eventually quit criminal behaviour. We used focalized individual interviews to elicit the perceptions of interviewees, using a qualitative descriptive design with multiple cases. Our results show that interviewees declare that they have a positive valuation of institutions, deeming them a potentially beneficial space available to them through a facilitator. Nevertheless, institutions do not seem to influence their decision to quit crime.Inmates blame themselves for their criminal behaviour, thus reducing the credit that institutions have in theirchoice of criminal paths. We discuss possible implications of our findings on intervention processes for this population.