Abstract

MOREIRA, Jacqueline de Oliveira; GUERRA, Andréa Máris Campos  and  COSTA, Domingos Barroso da. Postmodernity and the informal market of illegal drugs: Youth in criminality. Rev. Mal-Estar Subj [online]. 2012, vol.12, n.1-2, pp. 389-418. ISSN 1518-6148.

The aim of this paper is to discuss the inclusion of young people - residents of areas of high violence rates - in the illegal drugs' informal world. This article presents a partial result of a broader research named "The construction of social bonds by young people who live in areas of high violence rates". From discourse fragments of these young people, the article discuss their links with the drug market, articulating the notions of hedonism, individualism and consumerism. The current social context seems to lead groups of young adults to alienation and non-commitment to each other. In addition to that, the young people studied have an unstable economic situation. Idleness, lack of opportunities, economical factors, hedonism and consumerism are the key factors in determining the entry in the drug trade, according to discourses. The invisibility of these social actors is then transformed into social recognition, which, along with the financial privileges obtained rapidly, strengthen the option for crime. An immediate visibility is reached through power and fear, linked to weapons display, that direct to a meaningless revolt, as it does not have the capacity to change the political and social scenario, or even lead to subjective changes. Unaware of this fact and believing that violence can bring some sort of visibility, those already marginalized youngsters do exactly what is expected of them by the system, that absorbs them, confirming their condition of marginality.

Keywords : Youth; postmodernity; criminality.

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