ResumenAunque para muchos cientificos sociales del siglo XX, el psicoanalisis como escuela psicologica y gran teoria explicativa de la conducta humana mediante el revelamiento de los deseos inconscientes del sujeto haya quedado en desuso, todo indica que su potencial heuristico y hermeneutico siguen vigente cuando lo que se trate es de comprenden comportamientos individuales y colectivos en sus implicaciones mas profundas, catalogados como delictivos por el discurso juridico. En consecuencia, el objetivo del presente ensayo radica en examinar el estado actual de la cuestion del psicoanalisis con respecto a la criminologia en Latinoamerica y, por tanto, ofrecer una vision particular de la practica psicoanalitica que se desarrolla hoy en el campo de cierta criminologia. En lo metodologico estamos frente a una investigacion bibliografica que se desarrollo mediante la observacion y el analisis intertextual de diversos obras clasicas y neoclasicas sobre el tema. Entre las conclusiones destaca que, un aporte particular que brinda la teoria psicoanalitica a la ciencia criminal es comprender que la pena tiene efectos terapeuticos. Puede desvictimizar a una persona soslayada en su subjetividad y, al mismo tiempo, puede colaborar en la toma de consciencia del acto criminal por el castigo via su resignificacion.AbstractAlthough for many social scientists of the twentieth century, psychoanalysis as a psychological school and great explanatory theory of human behavior through the revelation of the unconscious desires of the subject has been deprecated, everything indicates that its heuristic and hermeneutical potential remain in force when what is Try is to understand individual and collective behaviors in their deepest implications, categorized as criminal by legal discourse. Consequently, the objective of this essay is to examine the current state of the issue of psychoanalysis with respect to criminology in Latin America and, therefore, to offer a particular vision of psychoanalytic practice that is developed today in the field of certain criminology. In the methodological we are facing a bibliographic investigation that was developed through the observation and intertextual analysis of various classical and neoclassical works on the subject. Among the conclusions, it is worth highlighting that a particular contribution that psychoanalytic theory provides to criminal science is to understand that the penalty has therapeutic effects. It can devictimize a person circumvented in his subjectivity and, at the same time, he can collaborate in the awareness of the criminal act by punishment via his resignification.