Rolando Jose Carmona-Aldunate
- Understanding criminal complexity and violent crimes committed by young people in Santiago, Chile
About
Coming from a sociology background, I became interested in criminology after taking an undergraduate course named “Sociological Foundations of Crime and Punishment”, which opened my eyes to the fascinating and complex world of how we define crime, why people break the law, and how as a society we react to rule breaking. After working in a consultancy project about the state of the right to penitentiary legal defense in the country, I joined an NGO as a caseworker in a program that worked with adult imprisoned men who were preparing for release, while I completed postgraduate Diplomas in Criminology and Youth Violence Prevention. I then joined the Institute of Criminology and completed my MPhil in 2022, where I focused my thesis in understanding the philosophical grounding of Chile’s Youth Justice System before going back home to carry out research on youth justice, adverse childhood experiences and violent and complex crime, and teach Criminology at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. I then rejoined the Institute in 2026 to carry out my PhD.
Research
My research focuses on youth justice and the life trajectories of young people who have committed violent crimes, including how they start offending, how their offending escalates, and how (and why) they eventually desist from crime in urban settings in Chile. I am particularly interested in understanding how suffering from adverse childhood experiences can influence perceptions of violence and eventually be linked with getting involved in complex and organized forms of crime. Before starting my PhD, I worked at Pontificia Universidad Católica’s Centre for Justice and Society, where I led research teams employing qualitative and mixed methods to investigate issues around the Youth Justice system, reentry programs, crime prevention and organized crime.
Teaching and supervision
Postgraduate level
2024-26. Taught courses on Criminological Theories to criminal justice professionals at the Postgraduate Diploma in Criminology, Criminal Justice and Public Security Policies (School of Government, Pontificia Universidad Católica).
2024-26. Taught courses on Criminological Theories and Youth Justice Policy to criminal justice professionals at the Postgraduate Diploma in Criminology, Criminal Justice Policy and Human Rights (Faculty of Law, Pontificia Universidad Católica)
2025. I was invited to give a lecture on the Sociology of Crime and Social Deviance for postgraduate students at the master’s degree in Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica.
2024-25. I was invited to give a lecture on Criminal Justice Policy for postgraduate students at the master’s degree in social sciences, Faculty of Social Sciences, Universidad de Chile.
• Undergraduate level
2025-26. I created, taught and graded the course “Crime, public policies and intervention strategies” for 50 undergraduate Psychology students at Universidad Alberto Hurtado.
2024-2025. I co-taught the course “Sociology of Crime and Social Deviance” with the former dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences, for 50 undergraduate Sociology students at Pontificia Universidad Católica.
2025-26. I created, taught and graded the course “Introduction to Criminology: A Psychosocial approach” for 50 undergraduate Psychology students at Universidad Alberto Hurtado.
2013-2017. I was a Teaching Assistant for the modules “Sociological Paradigms” and “Social Ethics” taught to undergraduate students at the Faculty of Social Sciences, Pontificia Universidad Católica.
• Professional upskilling
2025-2026. Led lectures and workshops on the new Youth Justice System’s specialized intervention model aimed at criminal prosecutors in charge of the sentencing of young offenders, as part of the National Prosecution Service upskilling program.
2023-2024. Led a five-day theoretical and practical upskilling program for professionals working in the adult prison service on how to apply the desistance framework to penitentiary work.
2023. Led a workshop for a leading Youth Justice NGO (Corfal) on how to incorporate the desistance framework into everyday intervention with young offenders.