Outside of Crime but Inside the ‘World of Crime’: Youth Experiences in the Midst of the War in the Peripheries of Maceió and Belo Horizonte

Abstract

This article analyzes youth experiences in the face of criminal governance efforts in the peripheries of Alagoas state capital Maceió and Minas Gerais state capital Belo Horizonte. We consider the experiences of young people who are not involved in crime to demonstrate that being “outside of crime” is not the same as being outside the “world of crime,” in view of the fact that the trajectories of their lives are affected by criminal moral and legal regimes in the territories where they live and through which they pass. We argue that the instable criminal dynamics in the peripheries of Maceió and Belo Horizonte transform gang war into a form of central relationship that intersects with kinship, love, neighborhood, childhood friendship and torcida relationships.