Concepções de infância em relatórios psicológicos judiciais

Abstract

Abstract This study s aim is to contribute to the understanding of the social construction of childhood and adolescence in Brazil. It is integrated in the research line developed by NEGRI Nucleus of Sutdies of Gender, Race and Age, from the Pontificia Universidade Católica de São Paulo. The object of this investigation is the apprehension of the conceptions of childhood underlying the psychological reports that integrate the edicts of Judiciary Power in the processes about sheltering of children and adolescents. The empirical material analyzed gather 60 psychological reportsabout 18 cases involving 42 children and adolescents, produced by 15 psychologists who work at the Varas da Infancia e Juventude de Santo Amaro e Santana in São Paulo, during 2004. The theoretical basis is linked with the new paradigms to the study of childhood that constitute a new disciplinar ambit - Studies on childhood as named by English speaking authors, or Sociology of Childhood , as named by French speaking researchers. The results point out that the children and adolescents s voices at the psychological reports , that sustain the judiciary decisions, are rarely listened to and they do not take part on their own sheltering and unsheltering. What prevails is the speech of relatives and technicians. This shows that childhood is still a subordinated category. The contradictions about keeping the right of family life and that of protecting children and adolescents in asylums throw light at the tension between the protective and the autonomist tendencies present at Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente. The results point out the situations of human suffering and the deep social unevenness to which children and adolescents are submitted.