THE INCLUSION OF CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS IN DRUG TRAFFICKING AND THE CULTURE OF NATURALIZATION OF CRIMINALITY

Abstract

This work analyzes the alarming phenomenon of children and adolescents entering drug trafficking, discussing the social, cultural, psychosocial and legal factors that contribute to its growth. It is observed that the expansion of drug trafficking in Brazil finds fertile ground in processes of trivialization of crime which, as demonstrated by Garland (2001), are historically constructed and crossed by institutional and political transformations that shape social perceptions about crime, making homogeneous interpretations of the discourses that permeate this field insufficient. The research supports that the participation of children and adolescents in drug trafficking cannot only be seen as an inevitable social phenomenon, but as a result of multiple factors that include the weakening of the penal system, state inaction and the structural conditions that produce violence. The perpetuation of violence, as shown by Wacquant (2008) when analyzing advanced urban marginality, is linked to the role of social and state structures in reproducing conditions that favor crime, putting the future of new generations at risk.