The mechanics of generalized continua provides an efficient way of introducing intrinsic length scales into continuum models of materials. A Cosserat framework is presented here to descrine the mechanical behavior of crystalline solids. The first application deals with the problem of the stress field at a crak tip in Cosserat single crystals. It is shown that the strain localization patterns developping at the crack tip differ from the classical picture : the Cosserat continuum acts as a bifurcation mode selector, whereby kink bands arising in the classical framework disappear in generalized single crystal plasticity. The problem of a Cosserat elastic inclusion embedded in an infinite matrix is then considered to show that the stress state inside the inclusion depends on its absolute size lc . Two saturation regimes are observed : when the size R of the inclusion is much larger than a characteristic size of the medium, the classical Eshelby solution is recovered. When R is much small than the inclusion, a much higher stress is reached (for an inclusion stiffer than the matrix) that does not depend on the size any more. There is a transition regime for which the stress state is not homogeneous inside the inclusion. Similar regimes are obtained in the study of grain size effects in polycrystalline aggregates of Cosserat grains.