Misdemeanors processing in Chilean criminal justice

Abstract

Although our legal imaginaries focus on adversarial criminal processes correlated with serious wrongdoing, low-level criminal justice dominates practice. In this very different reality, legal operators process in extremely short amount of time routinary cases. Processing takes place with little to no contestation. The paper examines this reality, giving a broad picture of its main characteristics, the reasons that explain its practical dominance, giving a first glimpse into the organization of mass processing in Chile.