La violence, attribut et stigmate de la jeunesse

Violence as an Attribute and a Stigma for the Youth. The problem of youth and violence needs to be considered under two epistemological approaches : materialism underscores the very constraints imposed to individuals and social groups by the use of force ; culturalism shows how violence is a subjective but socially distributed experience. This article wishes to unveil the social genesis of categories, which stigmatize youth as intrinsically bounded with violence. If violence is unequally attributed regarding to age and gender, it is also described as an individual phenomenon, whereas it also appears as a product of socio-economic inequalities. The articles presented in this volume point out the necessity of a comprehensive approach to violence, which leads to a political interpretation of this phenomenon