Preventing Juvenile Delinquency

Carolina Dos Reis,Neuza Maria De Fátima Guareschi

doi:10.1177/2158244016638391

Carolina Dos Reis, Neuza Maria De Fátima Guareschi

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244016638391

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Journal: SAGE Open	Publication Date: Apr 1, 2016
Citations: 4	License type: cc-by

Affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

This article aims to problematize discourses about protection and care that have surrounded compulsory hospitalization by evidencing its use as a control and punishment mechanism that increases the social vulnerability of young drug users. For such, we analyze lawsuits involving juveniles who were consigned to psychiatric institutions for drug addiction treatment as a protection measure in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, in Brazil. The analysis of the materials has evidenced discourses that have circumscribed young drug users and constructed this population as potentially dangerous subjects as well as a population category at risk. In this sense, we point out how compulsory hospitalization has emerged out of the lawsuits as a tool for prevention of juvenile delinquency.

Highlights

This study considers the process of increasing judicialization of mental health care provided to young drug users
We attempt to problematize discourses about protection and care that have surrounded compulsory hospitalization by evidencing its use as a control and punishment mechanism that increases the social vulnerability of young drug users
Through the documents—written by professionals from health, social care, and education services—that compose the lawsuits, the lives of those young drug users have been translated into a technical language, which is characterized by writing standardization and repeated use of some explanatory models

Summary

Introduction

This study considers the process of increasing judicialization of mental health care provided to young drug users. We attempt to problematize discourses about protection and care that have surrounded compulsory hospitalization by evidencing its use as a control and punishment mechanism that increases the social vulnerability of young drug users For such problematization, we have relied on theoretical and methodological tools of social psychology from a poststructuralist perspective, related to Michel Foucault’s thought. We discuss the emergence of the “addicted youth” as a social problem that has invited psychology and law to produce a range of knowledges and strategies of intervention and management of this population This affects both the conduction of public policies and the ways through which the juveniles are supposed to see and relate with themselves and the others

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Conclusion