Representations of Abnormality Through the Police Gaze: La Revista de los Carabineros de Chile, 1946-1973.

ABSTRACT

This paper seeks to explain, through a police written media such as the Revista de los Carabineros de Chile (RCCh) in a given historical period (1946-1973), the different textual and visual representations that were elaborated concerning individuals and groups, described as abnormal, based on their virtual dangerousness for the authority, citizenship, and public morality. Employing a content analysis of the information and articles that appeared there, we examine the identities attributed to delinquents, criminals, alcoholics, and drug addicts; elaborated from the identification of behaviors and appearances recognizable by the community and from the survey of the cultural assumptions of the time. These constructions would show an adaptive character to changing ideological scenarios and moral concerns, being able to generate enunciative, discursive, and opinionated languages, in addition to defining, characterizing, and reinforcing, by opposition, the institutional identity of the Chilean uniformed police.

Keywords:
Abnormality; Representation; Identities; Police; Periodical Publications