Abstract
This article presents a study on public policies directed at young people in conflict with the law, from a research in the context of Campo Grande/MS/Brazil, taking as operators of analysis the concepts of state racism and tanatopolítica, from the Michel Foucault’s and Giorgio Agamben’s theories, respectively. This paper discusses how public policies have been aimed at these young people, by practices that implement these policies and also by their failures, when they expose this population out from the legal protection. The debate concerns a reflexion on the condition the youth are faced by legal and political actions that usually frame them in terms of experiencing social exclusion. Finally, this study indicates a way of managing not only the life, but also the death of these young people, which keeps them in a situation of marginality warded by the state.
public policies; youth in conflict with the law; state racism; thanatopolitics