Marco, a teacher from Milan, relocates to Palermo and takes a temporary job teaching in a juvenile detention centre while he waits for a high school teaching position. He tries to understand and motivate his handful of students, encouraging them to stand up for their rights, finding out about their histories: Natale, in for murder and enamored with the Mafia; Pietro, who can't seem to stay out of jail; Claudio, barely 14 and learning to stand up for himself; and Mery, a trans sex worker, who was arrested after a fight with a trick who didn't want to pay her, and is now stuck in a male prison.

The Black Widows, a teenage girl gang, find one of their number killed. They blame her murder on Barbara, the on-again-off-again girlfriend of the leader of rival gang The Vandals. As the gangs prepare for a fight, we take a glimpse into their tumultuous home lives.

Brooklyn youth Frank Cusack, good son and brother by day, is a gang member by night. The Dukes, seemingly likable dead-end-kids, are dangerously involved with racketeer Gaggsy Steens. Despite the efforts of Franks's parents, he and pal Benny get involved in a serious crime. Can Stan Albert, head of the community center, prevent them from becoming full-time crooks?

The Hellcats are an all-female gang bent on bucking authority at their high school. New student Joyce moves into the neighborhood and quickly draws their attention. Desperate for acceptance and unhappy with her home life, she becomes close to the Hellcats and begins drinking, dancing and meeting boys. Can Joyce's parents stop her descent into depravity?

A social worker tries to end juvenile crime by getting involved with a street gang.

An abandoned child steals to survive and has problems when he decides to steal from the priest who helps him.

Crista, Berta and Sole, are three young people who feel exploited and discriminated by society.

In Taipei, four youths face alienation, loneliness, and moments of existential crisis amidst a series of minor crimes.

A newspaper publisher's daughter suffers from neglect by her parents. She and her friends turn to crime by dressing up like men, holding up gas stations, raping young men at gunpoint, and having makeout parties when her parents are away. Their "fence" gets them to trash the school on request of sinister un-American clients, and they run afoul of the law, apple pie, and God himself.

The crazed brother of a condemned killer sent to the gas chamber swears vengeance on those he holds responsible for his brother's execution.

The East Side Kids discover that one of their own, Danny, is torn between staying in school and becoming a boxer, and is getting mixed up with gangsters.

Following the arrest of her mother, Ramona, young Vanessa Lutz decides to go in search of her estranged grandmother. On the way, she is given a ride by school counselor Bob Wolverton. During the journey, Lutz begins to realize that Bob is the notorious I-5 Killer and manages to escape by shooting him several times. Wounded but still very much alive, Bob pursues Lutz across the state in this modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood.