AbstractThe aim of this paper is to demonstrate some understanding of the daily lives of young people facing socio‐educational measures of incarceration, especially regarding the predisposing factors that may explain their involvement in criminal occupations and activities (Although the socio‐educational measures applicable to adolescents configures as a response to committing of an offence, it has a mostly educational and not punitive character.). This is an exploratory study with a qualitative approach. The data collection instrument used was semi‐structured interviews with 22 young men aged between 12 and 17 years, on condition of deprivation of freedom in four youth centres in Belo Horizonte, Minas Gerais, Brazil. The results showed that these adolescents had a way of life associated with a scarcity of resources owned by households (including little control over them, despite the efforts of their mothers); low adherence to school; limited institutional access to activities in their free time; exposure to predisposing factors to crime, such as early contact with crime through neighbourhood and family relationships; and profiting from crime. Copyright © 2016 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.