The Usual Suspects: Youth, Violence and Stigma in Rio de Janeiro. Reflecting on the Socio-Symbolical Place of Brazilian “urban outcasts”

This paper aims to reflect upon the role of violence and stigma on life experience of poor youngsters living in Brazilian cities and, more specifically, those living in favelas in Rio de Janeiro. The paper considers the role of historical social representation of favelas on youth criminalization and analyses how public reactions to violence reinforces cycles of marginalization as well as creates barriers for youth life chances. The paper explores the nature of social fear in Rio and its association with local drug gangs in favelas over the last decades. The phenomenon has created new feelings among hegemonic groups in the city, producing a mix of indifference, social avoidance and hate. Such feelings result in punishment and disrespect to human rights, in a clear understanding of youngsters as undesirable people who must be avoided and eliminated. It also reflects on urban environment, with the fragmentation of urban fabric and the intensification of urban inequalities. The analysis considers recent transformations in Brazilian socio-political and spatial context, where the negative effects of neoliberal agenda associated to the lack of democracy in favelas has transformed youngsters in the main target of policies of social control, management and enclosure. The paper will bring evidences to reflect on the socio-symbolical place of the youth in the contemporary cities and will allow reflections on the relations between marginalised youngsters in Brazil and UK.