Becoming subjects in a context of violence

state violence and criminality in the lives of adolescent offenders from the periphery

Abstract

In the research at hand, we explore the relationship between State violence and criminality in the lives of adolescents residing in marginalized communities who have committed delinquent acts, from the perspective of Social Psychology. Addressing the historical context of structural violence in Brazil as a manifestation of a democratic state of permanent exception - through the implementation of a necropolitical agenda - this study is founded on four primary theoretical pillars: State violence, necropolitics, structural racism, and adolescent offenders. To contemplate the psychosocial repercussions of segregation, violence, racism, and the criminalization of poverty in the formation of the subjectivity of adolescent delinquents, this work employs the analysis of the book “Memórias de um Sobrevivente” by Luiz Alberto Mendes as its methodology. Discussions encompass the concept of crime as a social status and its visibility; analyses of a life deeply entrenched in pervasive violence; and police brutality within the context of retaliatory violence. Our conclusion asserts that the societal stigmas ensnare these adolescents, confining them to the belief that they are destined to be the “expected delinquent,” predisposed to react violently as a psychosocial response to the structural violence that fosters aggressive behaviors. Consequently, the development of novel psychological interventions in critical social contexts is both imperative and urgent.