“I don’t like coming here”. Alternative measures in the juvenile penal system

Abstract

This article analyzes the meanings of the socio-educational interventions that are carried out in a territorial device in charge of the implementation of alternative measures to confinement and the judicial process in the juvenile penal system of the Province of Buenos Aires (Argentina) in the period 2018-2020. From a socio-anthropological and gender perspective, the perspective of the actors, mainly young people (men), is recovered. Based on participant observations, interviews and documentary analysis, the meanings around freedom of movement and also of expression, and the possibility of building one's own demand are highlighted. These meanings emerge from the link between the actors and nuance the reactive and disciplinary aspects of penal social control.