This book offers the first comprehensive English-language exploration of juvenicide, a concept that examines the killing of young people as a form of structural violence rather than ordinary homicide. While the term has circulated widely in Latin American scholarship, this volume brings together leading voices to consolidate its theoretical foundations and demonstrate its relevance across diverse contexts.

The book is organized into four sections that collectively map the field of juvenicide studies. The first section establishes the conceptual framework and situates juvenicide within contemporary crises affecting youth. The second examines intersectional dimensions, including age, gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity, to show how these factors shape vulnerability to lethal violence. The third section analyzes institutional structures—state power, neoliberal policies, education systems, and criminal apparatus—that enable and normalize juvenicide. The final section turns to resistance, documenting collective struggles that challenge the disposability of young lives in countries such as El Salvador, Argentina, and Colombia.

By framing juvenicide as a “total social fact,” the volume illuminates the political, structural, and symbolic forces that render certain youth populations expendable under neoliberal capitalism. Combining empirical research with conceptual innovation, this book provides critical insights for scholars of youth and violence, policymakers, and practitioners. It also serves as a valuable resource for courses on inequality, violence, and social justice in Latin America and beyond.

Carles Feixa is a social anthropologist. He is full professor at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra (Barcelona). He holds a PhD from the University of Barcelona and an Honoris Causa from the University of Manizales (Colombia). He has specialized in the study of youth cultures, carrying out fieldwork in Catalonia, Mexico, Colombia and Morocco. His last book is El Rey. Becoming a Latin King (2026). He has been a consultant on youth policies for the United Nations and vice-president of the RC "Sociology of Youth" of the International Sociological Association. Principal Investigator of the TRANSGANG project of the European Research Council.

Elena Butti is an urban anthropologist. She holds a PhD from the University of Oxford, and she is currently an assistant professor at the Center for International Studies (CERI), CNRS at Sciences Po in Paris. Her research interests span youth, violence, organized crime, activism, and informal housing in Latin America. Her first book (NYU Press) consists of an ethnographic exploration of the involvement of adolescents in organized crime in the urban peripheries of Medellín. Author of ethnographic photographic series and participatory films co-produced with young people.

Andrea Bonvillani is a social pshychologist. She holds a Bachelor and PhD from National University of Córdoba (Argentina). She is an Associate Researcher of CONICET at the Institute of Psychological Research (IIPsi) and Full Professor of the Faculty of Psychology at the aforementioned university. She is a Category II Researcher in Research Incentive Systems (Ministry of Education of the Argentine Nation). She is director of various research projects at the local and international level in the field of institutional violence against young people and processes of political subjectivation.

Germán Muñoz is a communication specialist. Emeritus Researcher recognized by Colciencias, he holds a degree in Philosophy from the University of San Buenaventura in Bogotá, a Master’s in Semio Linguistics from l’EHESS in Paris, and a PhD in Social Sciences, Childhood, and Youth from the University of Manizales. He has taught at the University of Manizales, Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas (Bogotá), and Uniminuto (Bogotá). He leads the research group “Youth, Cultures and Powers”.