The present study aims to analyze the experiences of violation and defense of rights of young people placed in closed facilities as well as open programs as part of the socio-educational system and also accessed the Centers for the Defense of Children s Rights in the city of Rio de Janeiro. The study contextualizes the way juvenile offenders rights get violated before, during and after the period they spent in the socio-educative facilities, and who also accessed centers for the defense of rights. The qualitative study was based on 3 case studies of youth between 18 and 22 years old. They were victims of violence and out the system and accessed the Children s Rights Defense Center for help. The protagonists of this study are the youth and their experiences of violation and defense of rights, and they are part of a broader historical context, characterized by several kinds of violence. These experiences do not go unnoticed by them and do cause them harm. The opposition between violation x defense of rights express multiple meanings to them, reflecting the intensification of violence and the contradictions present in a capitalist society. By recognizing and reproducing the violence suffered in these spaces and throughout their lives, they perceive such violations as abusive and illegal experiences. At the same time, they experience the defense of their rights from their own agency in the world, resignifying and reconstructing their experiences.