The COVID-19 pandemic forced Chilean probation officers to adopt remote supervision technologies to maintain contact with their clients. Considering remote contact was scarcely used by Chilean probation officers before the pandemic, this change demands studying the impact of the pandemic remote supervision on the contact between officers and clients. To address this problem, we surveyed probation officers ( n = 326) exploring the impact of COVID-19 on clients, officers, and the use of remote supervision across six Chilean macro-geographical regions representing the entire country: Extreme North, North, Santiago (Metropolitan Region), Middle South, South, and Extreme South. The survey includes demographics on probation officers at the national level, presenting data about their workload and agency for the first time. The results suggest that probation officers drastically changed how they contact their clients, shifting from primarily in-person communication to remote contact including videoconferencing, calls, and text messages. Our findings indicate that clients were heavily impacted by the pandemic in different psychosocial aspects and had low rates of access to technology. Finally, the macro-geographical analysis reveals how demographics, agency characteristics, technology access, and COVID-19 impact vary throughout the country. We conclude by discussing the relevance of the geographical and socioeconomic context before implementing remote supervision as community supervision core practice.

El deber de gestión del riesgo de corrupción en la empresa emanado de la ley 20393 de Chile: especial referencia a las exigencias de identificación y evaluación de riesgo *

In this article, I propose and apply a digital vigilantism model to a specific incident that occurred in Mexico, where the death of two innocent people was filmed through Facebook Live. Using a mixed methods approach and content analysis, I analyzed digilante Facebook posts ( N = 942) coding gender, digital vigilantism categories, discriminatory comments, and punitive attitudes aimed at the perpetrators and the inciter of the lynching. The categories include investigating, blaming, or rebuking, while the discriminatory comments include classism, racism, homophobia, and body-shaming. I coded the punitive attitudes distinguishing four categories: non-physical punishment (calling for God’s wrath and the guilty conscience of the targets), legal sanction, death, and other punishment. The findings reveal the key role gender played in digilantism: females tend to conduct more investigations and low level attacks (blaming) than males, but males tend to perpetrate more harsh attacks (rebuking) than females. The most popular punitive attitude is calling for the death of targets, revealing tensions between legal sanctions and digilantes’ desired punishment. This study suggests the presence of different expressions of discrimination and reasons to engage in digilantism, encompassing both legal and illegal behavior deployed in a mainstream social media platform such as Facebook.

The COVID-19 pandemic forced community corrections agencies worldwide to use remote technologies to prevent the spread of the virus. A growing body of the literature suggests that video-conferencing is poised to be a core practice within community correctional settings. However, little is known about the best practice strategies for incorporating videoconferencing into routine supervision. We address this gap by interviewing and conducting focus groups with a sample of community correction officers from the US ( N = 16). We identified the presence of the law enforcement—social work dichotomy in remote settings, reflected in challenges and opportunities when holding clients accountable and establishing client–officer relationships. Our findings show that officers relying on evidence-based practices (EBPs) were able to use videoconferencing tools to overcome remote challenges. We suggest that establishing in-person relationships, adapting EBP, and taking care of logistics are critical steps to strengthen remote accountability and client–officer relationships. We conclude by discussing future research areas.

La pandemia COVID-19 y libertad vigilada en Chile: Supervisión remota y diferencias regionales 

In 1985, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power, to protect and promote victim rights when navigating the criminal justice system. Today, technology, such as online and telephone hotlines, are changing how victims seek and receive support. Our review of the emerging gender-based violence and sexual assault hotline literature outlines where and how international initiatives can practically address complex experiences that shape how victims of violence (VOV) interact with criminal justice settings. In the literature, we identified common themes that revealed VOV demographics and contextual factors that complicate the implementation of victim-based criminal justice procedures. Our findings reveal that gender, age, and contextual factors, like the length of time before someone discloses their victimization, impact the experience of VOV. Our review suggests that the Principles of Justice for Victims of Crime and Abuse of Power should be updated to address individuals’ diverse experiences when choosing to report their victimization.

El propósito es detectar una serie de dificultades conceptuales y metodológicas en la investigación chilena sobre miedo al delito. Para llevar a cabo lo anterior, se realiza a modo de introducción un apartado sobre las principales dimensiones del miedo al delito, para con posterioridad describir las problemáticas que la literatura comparada ha detectado sobre la forma tradicional de medir dicho fenómeno. El documento finaliza delineando sugerencias para futuras investigaciones en el contexto chileno Palabras Clave: Miedo al delito; Metodología cualitativa; Metodología cuantitativa; Populismo punitivo.

La corrupción en el mundo de los negocios. Una aproximación criminológica teórica y empírica para el caso chileno