Violence and social suffering: elements for a denaturalization of violence from captive testimonies in the prisons of post-dictatorial Chile

Abstract

This article proposes some elements for a reflection on violence and social suffering, as an exercise in denaturing, based on the findings of a qualitative research on the criminal issue in Chile. It follows that the criminal policies of mass incarceration of Chile's post-dictatorship, with all its violent practices of human degradation, are a determining element when it comes to thinking about the reproduction of violence and continuity in the circuit of confinement. The denaturalization of violence is therefore presented as a necessary exercise when thinking about a paradigm shift in the face of this vortex.