Making Bodies Matter:

Abstract

Previous studies of adolescent male violence have ignored, inter alia, offender agency, body, and gender. The life-history method offers a means to explore, concurrently, all three. In this article, the life histories of two white working-class adolescent male violent offenders are juxtaposed and analysed. Although both boys initially constructed culturally idealized hegemonic masculinities, bodily and sexual practices institutionalized in the school played a major role in the construction of two differing forms of masculinity (subordinate and opposition) as well as corresponding types of violence (sexual and assaultive).