Precarious youth and the racialization of drug trafficking

• Autor(a) principal: Fernandes Guimarães, Flávia
• Data de Publicação: 2023
• Outros Autores: Santana de Paiva, Fernando
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Revista de Psicologia (Fortaleza. Online)
• Texto Completo: http://www.periodicos.ufc.br/psicologiaufc/article/view/81773
• topic: Youth; Drug trafficking; Racialization; Criminalizations; Prohibitionism; Juventude; Narcotráfico; Racialização; Criminalização; Proibicionismo

This article, the result of research conducted with young people involved in drug trafficking, aims to analyze the meanings produced by black and peripheral young people about their experiences in the illegal drug market, from a perspective that intersects the markers of race and social class. A qualitative research was conducted with nine young people in compliance with a socio-educational measure, for five months. During this period, it was used participant observation, field diary and narrative interviews, based on the life history method, seeking to explicit the interweaving of trajectories and life conditions narrated by the subjects and the unfolding of their experiences in the drug trade. To this end, it was based on theoretical references that deepen the discussion about the black and peripheral youth as a permanent object of punitive power. The criminalization of this contingent is a historical constant, reproducing poverty and segregation. In this sense, the results of this study show that drug trafficking is repeatedly an alternative to the scenario of scarcity of rights and public policies for this contingent. Thus, this activity presents itself as a path for these young people, contradictorily, to dream and seek an autonomous life, distinct from the reality that surrounds them.