A Youth Justice Approach to the Street Children Phenomenon in Brazil: A Critical Review
| Date | 01 December 2012 |
| Author | Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt |
| DOI | 10.1177/1473225412461214 |
| Published date | 01 December 2012 |
Youth Justice
12(3) 229 –244
© The Author(s) 2012
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DOI: 10.1177/1473225412461214
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A Youth Justice Approach to the
Street Children Phenomenon in
Brazil: A Critical Review
Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt
Abstract
Drawing on the work of various researchers and on the findings of a recently published national survey
on street children, this article first presents a contemporary and systematic review of the street children
phenomenon in Brazil. It then turns to recommendations set forth by international experts in the field,
particularly in search of ideas on how to make the Brazilian youth justice system more sensitive to, and more
efficacious for, this population. Notwithstanding its focus on the Brazilian context, since street children are
indisputably a global phenomenon, this article has an inherent universal appeal.
Keywords
Brazil, Brazilian youth justice system, street children
Introduction
It was in the late-1970s that the so-called ‘street children phenomenon’ started to be rec-
ognized as a ‘social problem’ in Brazil (Butler and Rizzini, 2003). Over the years, numer-
ous studies have been undertaken to examine this population and the lives they lead, the
National Movement of Street Boys and Girls (Movimento Nacional de Meninos e Meninas
de Rua) was founded, a different pedagogical system was introduced to provide ‘street
educators’, and many new laws were created to protect children in Brazil (Bush and
Rizzini, 2011; De Oliveira, 2000; Lusk, 1989; Pilotti and Rizzini, 1994). More than three
decades after the ‘discovery’ of street children, however, and despite Brazil’s recent eco-
nomic growth, there remains a worrying gap between Brazil’s human rights obligations
and the lived experiences of street children.
Based on an extensive literature search and on the findings of a recently published
national survey on street children, the first aim of this article is to address a series of
Corresponding author:
Fernanda Fonseca Rosenblatt, Centre for Criminology, University of Oxford, Manor Road Building, Manor Road, Oxford,
OX1 3UQ, UK.
Email: fernanda.fonseca@crim.ox.ac.uk
461214YJJ12310.1177/1473225412461214Youth JusticeRosenblatt
2012
Article
230 Youth Justice 12(3)
questions including: Who are the street children? What takes them to the streets? What
do they experience on the streets? What is the nature of their relationship with Brazil’s
Youth Justice System? Thereafter, it will turn to an examination of the recommenda-
tions of international experts in the field to inform a discussion on how the youth justice
system could be reformed to address more effectively the street children phenomenon
in Brazil.
The First National Survey of Street Children in Brazil
Brazil’s Federal Government has recently published a draft report containing the findings
of the first-ever national survey of street children in the country (hereafter ‘national
survey’) (SDH, 2011). The national survey was undertaken at the initiative of the
Secretariat for Human Rights of the Republic Presidency (Secretaria de Direitos Humanos
da Presidência da República – SDH) and the Institute for Sustainable Development
(Instituto de Desenvolvimento Sustentável – IDEST). The survey was conducted between
May and June 2010 in 75 Brazilian cities, including all the capital cities and others with
more than 300,000 inhabitants, and had both quantitative and qualitative dimensions. A
total of 23,973 street children were counted, the majority of whom (22,124) were included
in the survey.1
The national survey has been criticized by some street children campaigners who claim
that it ‘was completed in too short a space of time to fully develop and implement an
adequate methodology to get a reasonably complete count’ and that ‘local experts were
not consulted as to the range of places where street children could be found’ (Bush and
Rizzini, 2011: 30). But even the more sceptical commentators agree that the survey ‘pro-
vides a much more detailed demography of street children than any other existing study’
in the country (Bush and Rizzini 2011:31; see also Rosemeyer, 2011). Indeed, despite the
(unavoidable) limitations in a study of this scope and nature, these first-ever national
research findings undoubtedly provide valuable (and up-to-date) insights into the street
children phenomenon in Brazil and, as will be seen below, they come to add strength to
much of what, for decades, small-scale qualitative localized surveys have revealed.
Therefore, throughout this article, frequent reference will be made to the national survey,
although care will also be taken to compare its findings with those of prior studies.
Defining the Terms ‘Child’ and ‘Street Children’
This article adopts the term ‘child’, in line with the use of the term in the United Nations
Convention on the Rights of the Child (UNCRC, 1989), according to which ‘a child
means every human being below the age of eighteen years’ (Article 2). It is worth
noting, however, that nearly half (45.13%) of the children counted in the national survey
fall between the ages of 12 and 15 years (SHD, 2011), and that previous studies indicate
a similar age group of street children in Brazil (see, for example, Fausto and Cervini,
1991; Rizzini, 1996).
No universal definition of ‘street children’ has yet been reached and the term includes
a wide range of children whose exposure to the streets, and the precise nature of such
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