“Writing the story”: Analysis of discursive networks in a community writing process with victims of armed conflict

Abstract

This study analyzes how three adolescents linked to the Adolescent Criminal Responsibility System (SRPA, in Spanish) in Valle del Cauca, Colombia, with a history of gang membership, subjectively construct their criminal identity. The objective is to understand how these young people develop their identities based on life experiences, family relationships, cultural practices, and social environments. A qualitative, biographical approach was employed, using in-depth interviews and body mapping as the primary data collection techniques. Automated textual analysis was also applied using IRaMuTeQ software to generate semantic graphs and discourse network maps. The results demonstrate that these adolescents' criminal identities are structured around the feelings of recognition, power, and belonging that gangs provide in contexts of exclusion and marginalization. Their narratives reveal common patterns of family abandonment, structural violence, and searching for meaning in high-risk social environments. Analysis of the discourse networks identified thematic nodes associated with emotional experience, masculinity, transgression, and group loyalty. This study concludes that juvenile criminal identity cannot be understood solely from legal or behavioral frameworks but must be approached as a subjective construction anchored in social and symbolic dynamics. The study highlights the usefulness of semantic network analysis as a tool for revealing discourse structures and how young people make sense of their criminal experiences.