Social representations of child and adolescent sexual abuse: A study of juridical professionals

Camila De Alencar Pereira,Dayse Barbosa Silva,Luã Medeiros Fernandes De Melo,Silvana Carneiro Maciel

doi:10.1590/1982-0275201936e180085

Camila De Alencar Pereira, Dayse Barbosa Silva + Show 2 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.1590/1982-0275201936e180085

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Abstract

Abstract This study sought to identify the structure of legal professionals’ representations of child and adolescent sexual abuse anchored by the central core theory of social representations. The sample included 31 professionals responsible for implementing public policies in relation to victims, their family members, and aggressors. A sociodemographic questionnaire was employed with a free word association task. The resulting data were analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences 21.0 and the R Interface for Multidimensional Analyses of Texts and Questionnaires, respectively. The central core of the professionals’ representations included the terms “violence”, “trauma”, and “grief”; furthermore, they pathologized the abuser, and their representations were anchored by criminological and psychological explanations of sexual abuse. This fragmented view of sexual abuse lacks macroexplanations that address cultural and social factors as well as proposals that involve society as a whole.

Highlights

This study sought to identify the structure of legal professionals’ representations of child and adolescent sexual abuse anchored by the central core theory of social representations
This article aims to identify the structure of the social representations of child and adolescent Sexual Abuse (SA) based on the representations of judges and psychosocial professionals
A total of 64.5% of the sample were women. This predominance of females was caused by the imbalance of psychology and social care professionals, given that only three of the 12 judges who participated in the study were women

Summary

Introduction

This study sought to identify the structure of legal professionals’ representations of child and adolescent sexual abuse anchored by the central core theory of social representations. The central core of the professionals’ representations included the terms “violence”, “trauma”, and “grief”; they pathologized the abuser, and their representations were anchored by criminological and psychological explanations of sexual abuse. It can cause physical and psychological harm and prejudice the victim’s development and maturation (Maria, 2012; Rates, Melo, Mascarenhas, & Malta, 2015; Santos & Yakuwa, 2015) It has existed throughout history, violence committed against children and adolescents has only recently been discussed in terms of a universal problem that silently and secretly affects thousands of victims (Florentino, 2015)

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