Knowledge, practices and institutional representations: The black box of the juvenile justice in Colombia

Law seems to be closed: it is a black box. While literature describes this intangible imaginary, Pierre Bourdieu's concept of the legal field pretends to understand the mechanisms of law. This framework is helpful to analyze juvenile justice in Colombia that must solve multiple demands: the criminal conduct and the restoration of rights. The methodology consisted of a qualitative analysis of in-depth interview data conduced in three juvenile courts in Colombia. Interviews were conducted with public officials working with the juvenile criminal law. The conclusion is that problems of time, knowledge and imposition have an impact on the control of juvenile criminal justice. Shared expectations about the institutions of this justice are also important in the process. These findings show the sociological potential when taking a closer look to the "black box" of criminal justice. It contributes to broaden the understanding of the legal fields in Latin American societies.