“Seeds of evil”: essentialization and agency in sustaining racism in juvenile detentions centers in Rio de Janeiro

The aim of this article is to analyze processes of essentialization of adolescents serving socio-educational measure of internment in the state of Rio de Janeiro, considering professional disputes about the racial dimension of such essentialization processes. To this end, different materials from field research carried out since 2015 were revisited, which made it possible to discuss the regularity of racialized representations of adolescents in detention, even when this racial dimension was not perceived or intentional. By noting the centrality of the expression “seeds of evil”, often used in Rio de Janeiro’s socio-educational centers, it will be possible to critically dialogue with the concept of structural racism in order to highlight the dimension of agency in the production and reproduction of racial inequalities in the socio-educational measure of internment.