Precocious Delinquency: Young people and gangs in São Paulo

This paper is based on a collective research project on juvenile delinquency in São Paulo (Brazil) from 1988 to 1996. Its four main objectives were: a) measure the scale of juvenile participation in the growth of violent urban crime; b) identify the social profile of young offenders; c) analyze the evolution of the patterns of crimes committed by young offenders; and d) examine the judicial sentences imposed by juvenile courts.

The official sources used in our research were penal processes, containing information on the relationship between young offenders and details on gangs. In this paper, we will try to present some juvenile delinquency characteristics in order to understand the social network that influences and leads young people into the world of crime.