Tratamiento penal: alternativas para erradicar la violencia estructural en adolescentes infractores Ecuatorianos

Abstract

The Ecuadorian criminal justice system has always been approached from the perspective of harsher penalties. However, one of the great contradictions has been to treat juvenile offenders in the same way as adults, since the reasons why they are being recruited by criminal gangs are not taken into account. This article, based on a mixed methodology, seeks to highlight the socioeconomic context in which these young people find themselves, and how exclusion and lack of opportunities are what cause them to become offenders, from a perspective that sees them as victims of poverty in Ecuador rather than criminals. This work is based on criminological theories such as environmental criminology, the broken windows theory, etc., which seek to analyze from various perspectives how different causes push a person towards organized crime. It also includes a perspective from neuroscience that seeks to explain how the adolescent brain is totally impulsive and lacks the ability to measure consequences, because their prefrontal cortex is still developing.We will analyze how strengthening academic, work, and economic areas are some of the ways to prevent adolescents from becoming part of the criminal world and encourage them to seek a different life path than the one they might unfortunately end up on.