Utilizing critical incidents primarily from a year-long ethnographic study of a single gender middle school, the authors attempt to capture the mechanisms of symbolic violence as described by Bourdieu and Passeron in "Reproduction in Education," "Society and Culture" and by Bourdieu in latter publications. Our analysis suggests that problems of persistent social inequality, crime, and incarceration are linked to symbolic forms of violence that occur in schools and that current policies attempting to address these issues are flawed, based on a limited theorization of violence. (Contains 3 notes.)