Language:
Fernanda Augusta Penacci
Foundation Center for Socio-Educational Assistance to Adolescents. Comprehensive Adolescent Health Care Unit
Praça da Monçao, nº 653 – Centro
Iaras, SP, Brazil. Postal Code: 18775-000
( ferpenacci@gmail.com )
OBJECTIVE: To describe the sociodemographic profile of the female adolescent population deprived of liberty in the interior of the State of Sao Paulo.
METHODS: Abstract of a doctoral thesis in public health, whose cross-sectional study was carried out based on secondary data from two Female Socio-Educational Service Centers in the city of Cerqueira César, State of Sao Paulo. A total of 374 adolescents aged 12 to 21 years were analyzed, from January 2015 to February 2016. The sample was described through different parameters such as: median, minimum, maximum and percentage estimate. For statistical analysis, the SPSS r software version 21.0 was used.
RESULTS: The average age of the adolescents was 17 years old, with a predominance of brown skin color. It was observed that 69.8% of the adolescents had elementary education and the school dropout rate was 92%. Few adolescents were engaged in paid employment (21.4%) before joining the Foundation, and most had been involved in the Guardianship Council (64.7%). The average number of family members was four; 53% of them lived with their parents and 31.4% were in a stable union. The average family income was R$1,576.00. The Regional Health Care Network 12 concentrated most of the adolescents.
CONCLUSION: There is a need for speedy public policies and cohesion with the needs of the female population, associated with the assertion that programs to assist adolescents, in general, keep them distant and passive from their notions of health, education, and personal and social development.
INTRODUCTION
We all go through adolescence, and each person experiences this phase in a positive or negative way, according to their conceptions and perceptions arising from their family, social and health environment.
Adolescence is permeated by several transformations that are considered normal for every individual. It is a period of transition and the challenges faced by adolescents are developmental challenges, including adaptations to the physiological and anatomical changes related to puberty. They involve the integration of sexual maturation into a personal model of behavior, that is, the progressive separation from parents and family and the establishment of an individual, sexual and social identity through relationships with peers, the use of enriched individual skills and the development of potential for occupational and developmental activities 1 .
The search for personal identity is one of the most decisive psychosocial commitments for adolescents. They need to stand out in their family and peer groups, to be distinct and have their own personality. At this stage of their life cycle, they seek to give meaning to life and understand what surrounds them. To do so, they need to learn to accept themselves and others, strengthening their ego . 2
The behaviors developed during adolescence are often determined by the social and economic environment in which adolescents grow up, which is often unsafe and unfavorable. Therefore, actions are needed to ensure that societies and their health systems respond adequately to the health and development needs of adolescents . 3
On the other hand, the inclusion of female adolescents in criminal acts is relevant. Thus, it is necessary to address the second theme, which brings aspects related to deprivation of liberty. Once an infraction described as a crime or misdemeanor has been committed, the competent authority may apply a socio-educational measure to the adolescent. This has a predominantly pedagogical nature, with the sole concern of educating and resocializing the adolescent accused of committing an infraction, preventing their reoffending, in accordance with the Statute of Children and Adolescents 4. The measure of internment is the strictest, depriving freedom for up to three years and is applied in the event of a serious infraction, threat or violence against a person, for repetition in the commission of other serious infractions and for repeated and unjustifiable non-compliance with the measure previously imposed. The measure of provisional internment is applied before the court sentence and lasts for a maximum period of forty-five days. The measure of sanction internment is a measure of deprivation of freedom with a period of up to three months. It will be determined by the competent authority in cases where there is non-compliance with a socio-educational measure previously applied 5 .
The work of listening to and monitoring adolescents deprived of freedom allows us to learn about aspects of their history and life context that point to issues quite different from those that seem to constitute the social imaginary. These are young people who have experienced a long series of situations of personal and social risk in their lives, in which suffering from violence seems to be an almost indispensable requirement for the practice of violence 6 .
In the State of São Paulo, the Fundação Centro de Atendimento Socioeducativo ao Adolescente (CASA Foundation) is the institution responsible for applying socio-educational measures to adolescents who have committed an offense, in accordance with the guidelines and standards set forth in the Statute of Children and Adolescents (ECA) and other current national legislation.
The scarcity of publications that characterize the social and demographic conditions of adolescents deprived of liberty encouraged us to study this relevant topic and, in order to better contextualize the issue, two contents were requested: the peculiarities of the adolescent phase and aspects related to the deprivation of liberty. Thus, the study is justified by its social and epidemiological importance, in addition to being original, innovative and comprehensive, since it encompasses the entire population of female adolescents deprived of liberty in the interior of the State of São Paulo.
Understanding aspects of a multidimensionality of factors that involve the population of adolescents served in the only two Centers of the CASA Foundation in the interior of the State of São Paulo becomes relevant. Since involvement in criminal acts is considered a growing social phenomenon and information about adolescents deprived of liberty is little known, the knowledge arising from the research assumes great importance.
METHODS
Cross-sectional study with secondary data carried out in two Women’s Socio-Educational Care Centers (CASA) located in the city of Cerqueira César, in the interior of the State of São Paulo. CASA Anita Garibaldi has the capacity to serve 56 adolescents between the ages of 12 and 21 years old who are serving a maximum stay of 90 days in internment, provisional detention with an average stay of 40 days and internment with an average stay of 15 months. CASA Cerqueira César has the same capacity and age range as the previous one, but only serves the internment measure, with an average stay of 15 to 18 months 7 . Both have been operating since July 2007. Data collection was carried out from January 2015 to February 2016 with adolescents who were already in the Centers and with those who were admitted during the period described, in order to obtain a larger database, which totaled a sample of 374 adolescents. Data were collected from the adolescents’ health folder, the psychological care folder and a CASA Foundation system used by the multidisciplinary team to launch the services, as well as forwarding them to the judiciary to assess compliance with the socio-educational measure.
A description of the population was made through summary measures: median, minimum and maximum and estimated percentages, which were analyzed in the SPSS r software version 21.0. To obtain the data, a request was filed with the Research and Documentation Center of the School for Professional Training and Qualification of the CASA Foundation/SP, and was granted. The project was submitted to the Ethics and Research Committee of the Botucatu School of Medicine and approved on 2 December 2014, with the Certificate of Presentation for Ethical Assessment (CAAE) number 38539614.8.0000.5411.
RESULTS
Of the 374 multidisciplinary files and reports researched, there was evidence of greater involvement of adolescents in criminal acts, with an average age of 17 years, and the predominant skin color self-declared upon admission to the institution was brown with 58.1%, followed by white with 30.4%. Regarding education, Table 1 shows that 32.4% of the adolescents have incomplete elementary education, while 37.4% have completed elementary education. Another finding is that 24.9% of adolescents have incomplete secondary education and only 5.3% have completed secondary education, where the distortion between age and grade is noticeable.
Regarding social conditions, 21.4% of the adolescents were engaged in paid work before being admitted to the CASA Foundation. Regarding pregnancy, 16.4% of them stated that they had only one child, a phenomenon that should be considered in understanding their experiences. Regarding involvement with alcohol and other drugs, it was found that 7.2% of the adolescents had already been admitted to other institutions for addiction treatment. The data indicated that 11.9% of the adolescents reported receiving care from the Institutional Shelter Service and 39.6% of the adolescents stated that they participated in the Governmental Program Bolsa Família. Regarding the passage through the Guardianship Council, the contingent was significant at 64.7%. Adolescents and families culminated in 55.9% of the follow-ups by the Specialized Reference Centers for Social Assistance (CREAS) and the Reference Centers for Social Assistance (CRAS).
Regarding the contextualization of housing conditions, 53% mentioned living with their father and mother, with an average family size of four people. The average gross family income, including amounts received through the Bolsa Família Program, was R$1,576.00. Using the Brazil Classification Criteria 8 as a parameter , it can be seen that the majority belonged to class C2. It was observed that 31.4% of the adolescents live in a stable union and that 37.2% have a family history of illness.
The origin of the female adolescent population in this study encompasses the entire interior of the State of Sao Paulo, and for better visualization of the results, the Regional Health Care Networks (RRAS) 9 were used as a reference for dividing the municipalities , as shown in Table 4. RRAS 12 followed by RRAS 13 concentrates the majority of adolescents serving socio-educational measures, with 22.73% and 21.39% respectively, that is, almost half of the population studied. It should be considered that these are more populous municipalities when compared to the others. In RRAS 12, the municipality of Sao José do Rio Preto represented 7.22% (27) of the adolescents.
In an exceptional case, the Women’s Centers served adolescents from Sao Paulo and Guarulhos because there were no vacancies in the Service Centers located in these cities. However, the priority is to serve the sentence in the same city of residence or in the Center closest to the family home. Adolescents from other states were also served, such as Mato Grosso do Sul (2.95%), Bahia (0.80%), Minas Gerais (0.53%), Paraná (0.27%), and Espírito Santo (0.27%).
DISCUSSION
It was found that a large proportion of young offenders reach the age of majority while serving their sentence. This also means that adolescents commit offenses later, considering the average age of 17.
Affirmative action policies are seen as an encouragement in the search for equal opportunities for these young women of mixed race, who are the majority at the CASA Foundation. The configuration of racial, color and gender inequalities were historically constructed in Brazilian society, and social movements to promote the rights established for the inclusion of black women in education, the job market and health still make a lot of sense today in view of the inequality between women and men, especially if they are black 10 .
When we take schooling into account, low performance or school dropout becomes clear even in basic education. Among the various factors, negative school experience stands out in the literature as one of the most significant predictors of serious criminal involvement in adolescence. School variables overlap with family variables in the official explanation and in the explanation given by the adolescents themselves for their involvement in criminal activity. In general, adolescents in conflict with the law show low performance and interest in school and high school dropout rates. For adolescents who become pregnant, there is also the possibility of early school dropout. Lacking encouragement and support, and sometimes pressured to contribute to the family income, children and adolescents begin a cycle of repeating grades and end up dropping out of school. Work operates as a mechanism in conflict with the school system, promoting gaps and exclusion. As the school grades advance, the rates of age-grade distortion and dropout rates increase 3,11-12 .
Regarding the predominant economic characteristics of adolescents, we should pay attention to a discussion about the population to which socio-educational measures are intended, since criminal acts are not committed only by adolescents from low-income families. We observe that the practice of crimes occurs in all social classes and the social response is different for each case 13-14 .
By the time a child arrives at a shelter, a long process of neglect, abandonment and violence has occurred. For some time now, this family has been struggling to provide for, care for, welcome and preserve the child. In addition, this process is largely permeated by feelings of low self-esteem, beliefs, often quite deep-rooted, about their incompetence in this parental relationship, about the unoptimistic prospects for the future and the lack of resources to reverse the situation 15 .
A significant number of families benefit from the Bolsa Família Social Program. However, according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), the average income of adolescents is above the average income of the Brazilian population, which is R$1,113.00 16 .
Social policies constitute a subset of public policies related to actions that determine the standard of social protection implemented by the State. They are related to the distribution of social benefits to reduce structural inequalities resulting from the trajectory of socioeconomic development, usually in the areas of education, health, social security, housing, sanitation, etc., and are implemented under the responsibility of the State 17 .
A significant number of adolescents are served by the Guardianship Council. The Council will take action whenever there is suspicion of a threat or violation of the rights provided for in the Statute of the Child and Adolescent, and may be contacted by any member of society at any time by reporting the fact. The actions of the Guardianship Council (and of the other members of the “System of Guarantees of the Rights of the Child and Adolescent”) must always be directed ” in favor ” of the child/adolescent in the sense of their full protection 10 . However, the fact that it is a public sphere does not mean that it will solve all the problems of democratization or that it will prevent the violation of rights.
The care provided to adolescents and their families by CREAS and CRAS is of fundamental importance for diagnosing the causes that determine the criminal behavior and for finding a possible solution to the problems. There is also a need for the involvement of the entire social assistance network to understand and prepare a situational and individualized diagnosis of the adolescent.
Regarding family issues, the majority of adolescents served by the CASA Foundation live with their parents. We observed that a group of adolescents reported being in a stable union and there is currently the possibility of new family configurations.
In the context of juvenile offenders, there has been a recurring practice of blaming the family for the situation of offence, especially in relation to the most socially vulnerable families and those with a “dysfunctional” family structure. This contradicts the idea of an ideal family model, in line with moral and social standards. It is important to highlight that before belonging to such a family, these adolescents come from an unequal society, which excludes them from several basic social rights, making it impossible, for the second time, for these young people to establish themselves as citizens with equal rights to others . 18
The presence of the family is of utmost importance during the process of resocialization of the adolescent, but it is located in a specific geographic region, which often makes it impossible to carry out visits to monitor compliance with the socio-educational measure. There are women who provide for the family and take care of their children. Others are not incarcerated, which makes visits impossible. This is discussed and reflected upon during the adolescent’s care by the multidisciplinary team. However, the strengthening of family ties is maintained through correspondence and telephone calls.
In other words, there are situations in which the family is seen as a risk factor for admission to the Center, given its involvement with crime. Its participation in the socio-educational process, even if requested by the adolescent, should be weighed against the adolescent’s emotional ties and opinion, or excluded, as indicated by the multidisciplinary team in charge.
In the family context, the risk factors for the outbreak of crime are mostly related to the parents’ violent behavior, as well as physical violence, abandonment, neglect and severe punishments applied by the parents themselves 19 . Therefore, the family stands out as a risk and protective factor for adolescents.
CONCLUSION
The findings suggest the need to invest in new studies on the topic addressed, as well as the expansion of knowledge that can help in the construction of public policies and effective actions in accordance with the particularities of this population group.
It was evident that adolescents aged 17 are the majority and, therefore, close to the age of majority and criminal jurisprudence. However, regardless of age, the factors that lead an adolescent to become an offender are often complex and varied, involving family, school, community aspects, contact with drugs and affiliation with peers with delinquent behavior.
Continuing schooling is important and should be supported by the social welfare network, both in the integration of the adolescent who has left school and in effective school monitoring. This aims to improve living conditions and even opportunities for paid work.
In assisting adolescents, it is up to the institutions to strengthen the youth’s protagonism, favoring protective factors, and collaborating in the possibility of redefining their lives.
Even when the family is far away, due to the geographic location of many municipalities, the bond with the adolescent needs to be re-established and made viable. Mechanisms must be created to inhibit the recurrence of criminal acts and to strengthen family ties. It is important to consider an important segment of families supported by CRASS and CREAS. It is not only the adolescent who needs to be strengthened, but also the family.
Since the origin of adolescents is predominantly from RRAS 12 followed by RRAS 13, it is appropriate that these regions make an effort to prepare a diagnosis of the situation and encourage discussions involving the entire social assistance network about the involvement of adolescents in criminal acts, listing the reasons or possible circumstances, the forms of expression and the roles of these women in crimes. A look at female inmates of the socio-educational system is necessary.
In the context of public health, there is a need for speedy public policies and cohesion with the needs of the female population, in line with the statement that programs to assist adolescents in general keep them distant and passive in their notions of health, education, personal and social development.
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