Abstract
The article analyzes some of the implications of the phenomenon of extrajudicial execution on ‘street children’ in Brazil. Following the presentation of basic information on the subject, as related to the general panorama of human rights violations in Brazil, the author looks for its immediate causes in the country's broader socio-economic and political reality. The killing of children exposes structural inequalities and injustices which result from the socio-economic conditions of wealth distribution in Brazil and from its political system. The phenomenon is analyzed in the context of Brazil's state system of social control and distribution of justice. The killings of children – and the impunity of the perpetrators – are facilitated by the distortions of the systems of police administration, criminal justice and community care.
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