This article gives the early findings of research on legal briefs carried out in one jurisdiction belonging to the Paris metropolitan area regarding violent infraction committed by minors. Using dossiers treated by judges for children, the author first proposes a typology of these instances of juvenile violence (« shady » violence, virile violence, neighbor-on-neighbor violence, intra-family violence), with the reminder that more than 80% of these involve people who are known to each other. Then the authors analyze some salient features of these minors’ profile and background: sex and age, family situation, place of residence and school history. In their conclusion, the authors explain that this research reveals instances of low-intensity violence occurring among people who know each other, for very diverse and very classic reasons in adolescence, as a result of conflicts that seem not to be new, but which are increasingly treated as legal issues (judicialized) in our society.

Adolescence, 2009, T. 27, n°2, pp. 415-429.