Abstract

MEDAN, Marina. "A life's project"? tensions in a youth crime prevention program. Rev.latinoam.cienc.soc.niñez juv [online]. 2012, vol.10, n.1, pp.79-91. ISSN 1692-715X.

The emphasis that social programs for youth of popular sectors put in the chronological age, rooted in the idea of a "life plan", underestimates the social class status of its beneficiaries. In this article I discuss the tensions that exist between the proposals regarding a crime prevention program and the possibilities seen by its potential beneficiaries. I argue that if young men and women find inconsistencies between the project's terms and their actual living conditions, this contradiction could lead to the legitimating of institutional exclusion and could also confine them to a position classified as incomplete youth. I present qualitative data obtained by studying a program implemented in a Gran Buenos Aires neighborhood, between 2008 and 2011.

Keywords : social programmes; disadvantaged youth; life's project; social exclusion; juvenile delinquency.

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