In this essay, I analyze three ways in which notions of rights and justice have been articulated in democratic Brazil. The first example shows how urban social movements have engaged with notions of rights to force the recognition of the poor residents of the urban peripheries as citizens and to demand that the state transform urban policies and improve the places where they live. The movements for urban reform indicate one of the ways in which democratization has taken root in Brazilian society and how the grassroots experience of local administration, legal invention, and popular mobilization has made its space in federal law. The second example refers directly to the question of violence and crime. It is in relation to this universe that some of the most perverse articulations of notions of rights and justice occur. The cases I analyze include a campaign to contest the legitimacy of human rights claims, expressions of support for police violence, and some demands by organized-crime groups. In all instances, the references to rights and justice are associated with attempts to undermine democratic practices and institutions. The third example also refers to the question of violence. I focus on hip-hop movements and their attempts to control the proliferation of violence and death among young residents of the poor peripheries. They use music, dance, and graffiti to articulate what they call “attitude,” a new code of behavior that might allow poor young men, especially black, to survive in the midst of widespread violence. For the hip-hop groups, democratic institutions are ineffective, unjust, and suspicious. Therefore, their discussions of justice are framed from a moral and sometimes religious perspective.