In Brazil, a growing number of young citizens from the socioeconomic periphery embark on a career in crime, earning their living by armed robbery or selling drugs. Through the life stories and narratives of inmates of a juvenile prison in the state of Bahia, the article anatomizes what makes these young men take up and stick to a life in conflict with the law, despite the limited profits and substantial hardships involved. I argue that the experience of violence, both suffered and perpetrated, is central to the forging of the youths’ criminal identities, and their persistent failure to change their life trajectories.

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Bahia,Brazil,Crime,Death,Drug dealing,Drug trafficking,Police violence,Violence,Youth offending,Youth violence

• Sociology - Social Sciences
• Other Humanities - Humanities
• Anthropology - Social Sciences