00887 Domestic Psychological Violence Voices of Youth

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DOMESTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE: 
VOICES OF YOUTH 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Researchers: 
Dr. Maria Amélia Azevedo 
Full Professor of IPUSP 
Coordinator of LACRI/PSA-IPUSP 
Dr. Viviane Nogueira de Azevedo Guerra 
Researcher of LACRI/PSA-IPUSP 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
LACRI − CHILD STUDIES LABORATORY 
IP − INSTITUTE OF PSYCHOLOGY 
USP − UNIVERSITY OF SÃO PAULO 
 
 
Voices of Youth 
 2
 
 
 
Oil on canvas, Julian Trigo, 1998. 
 
 
 
 
Yout h is in t he cent er where new t hings are born, 
w rote Walter Benjamin, in 1914. He soon added: once 
again t here is a new generat ion t hat want s t o 
overcome t he crossroads, but t he crossroads are 
nowhere. [Metafísica della giov entu. Scritti 1910-1918. Turim: 
Einaudi, 1982] 
 
FROM: LEVI, G. & SCHMITT, J.C. (1996). História dos jovens. 
São Paulo: Cia. das Letras. Vols. 1/2. 
 
 
 
 
And all men kill the thing they love 
By all let this be heard 
Some do it with a bitter look, 
Some with a flattering word, 
The coward does it with a kiss, 
The brave man with a sword! 
(Oscar Wilde − The Ballad of Reading Gaol) 
 
Voices of Youth 
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RESEARCH PARTICIPANTS 
I. TEAM THAT COLLECTED DATA 
1. Ana Maria Gonzales Takahashi 
2. Celso Aparecido Florêncio 
3. Cristiano da Silveira Longo 
4. Daniela Schwartzmann 
5. Izilda Mari 
6. Marisa Feffermann 
II. STATISTICAL PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS OF DATA 
Myrian Bizzocchi 
Statistician from the Fundação Carlos Chagas 
Voices of Youth 
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SUMMARY 
 
Page 
I . INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................................. 05 
I I . CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH: HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS .......................................... 07 
A. Brief incursion through the History of Childhood ................................................ 07 
B. Brief incursion through the History of Youth ....................................................... 13 
I I I . DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: 
 THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS ................................................................................. 21 
IV. DOMESTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE: A CONTROVERSIAL CONCEPT ..................... 25 
V. DOMESTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE − VOICES OF YOUTH: RESEARCH SCENARIO 40 
A. Preliminary considerations: RECOVERED VOICES ................................................... 40 
B. Referential framework: RELINQUISHED VOICES ........................................................ 42 
C. Methodological notes: FORGOTTEN VOICES ............................................................ 47 
D. Subjects: RECUPERATED VOICES ............................................................................ 52 
E. Results: REVEALING VOICES ................................................................................... 56 
VI. BIBLIOGRAPHY ............................................................................................................ 115 
VII. APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................... 126 
INSTRUMENT ................................................................................................................. 126 
INDEX OF TABLES .......................................................................................................... 129 
INDEX OF CHARTS .......................................................................................................... 131 
INDEX OF FIGURES ......................................................................................................... 132 
Voices of Youth 
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I 
 
INTRODUCTION 
This research was carried out in the Pluriannual Integrated Program of 
Research for the period 2000-2005, under the auspices of the Child Studies 
Laboratory (LACRI) − Psychology Department of Learning, Development and 
Personality (PSA) − Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo (IPUSP)1. 
Figure 1 shows the structure of the Program. 
The main objective of this Program is to answer the following key question: 
 WHAT IS THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE REGARDING MINORIZED2 BRAZILIAN 
CHILDHOOD? 
A discussion of the Research DOMESTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE: VOICES OF 
YOUTH follows, both from the view point of its historical and theoretical 
considerations as well as from those which refer to the specific methodology used 
and to the results obtained. 
 
1 The complete version of this program can be found in the files of LACRI, CNPq and FAPESP. 
2 It is important to point out that by “minorized childhood” we mean, along with Adorno (1991:78), the child who is deprived of 
his/her fundamental rights. These rights are outlined in article 227, Chapter VII, Title VIII of Brazil’s Constitution, published 
on October 5, 1988. This article states that it is the duty of society, of the family and of the State to ensure that the child and 
adolescent have the right to life, nourishment, education, to a profession, culture, dignity, liberty, leisure and respect, as well 
as safeguarding them from all forms of negligence, discrimination, exploitation, violence, cruelty and oppression… It can be 
ascertained that the “minorized” child is precisely the one whose rights are denied, one way or another… the one whose 
fundamental rights are neglected. This denial occurs either because there are rights that are not endorsed to all children, 
remaining a class privilege (right to education, to health, to play, etc.) or because there are rights which are not 
systematically defended for some (right to physical, psychological, sexual integrity, etc.). For this reason, at the heart of 
what is understood as “minorized childhood” is also the understanding that this deleterious condition results from VIOLENCE 
among SOCIAL CLASSES as well as violence within SOCIAL CLASSES. In the first case, we have “POOR CHILDHOOD” with its 
variation as to ethnic group and gender (Indian children, Negro children, prostituted children, etc.). In the second case we 
have VICTIMIZED CHILDHOOD IN THE HOME (or in other so-called institutes of protection). 
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FIGURE 1 
Structure of LACRI’s Pluriannual Research Program 
(2000-2005) 
CHILDHOOD AND VIOLENCE IN BRAZIL: STATE OF KNOWLEDGE 
 
 Key Question 
 
WHAT IS THE STATE OF KNOWLEDGE REGARDING MINORIZED CHILDHOOD IN BRAZIL? 
 
 
A 
Childhood, victim of violence within SOCIAL CLASSES 
(Victimized Childhood in the HOME) 
 B 
Childhood, victim of violence among SOCIAL CLASSES 
(“Poor Children”) 
 
 Modules Modules 
 
 
Project I − Childhood and Fatal Violence in the Family: First 
 ++++ approximations in Brazil 
 Project 1 − Abandonment of Children in Brazil 
 + 
Project II − Memories of the Past: Childhood and adolescence in the 
 ++ life of Brazilian writers 
 
 
Project III − Relationship between Family Violence and Socialization 
 +++ of Children 
 
 
Project IV − Voices of Childhood: What children and adolescents say 
 +++++ about domestic corporal punishment 
 
 
Project V − Domestic Psychological Violence: Voices of Youth 
LEGEND: 
+ − Doctoral thesis defended in June 1998 at IPUSP (approved with Distinction − 10,0). 
++ − Doctoral thesis defended in August 1998 at IPUSP (approved with Distinction − 10,0), to be 
published in book → OLIVEIRA, M.H. Lembranças do passado: a infância na vida dos escritores 
brasileiros. Bragança Paulista, SP: USF, 2001. 
+++ − Report totally completed. 
++++ − Report totally completed. Published through the Projeto Multimídia, integrated by: 
a. AZEVEDO, M.A. & GUERRA,V.N.A. (1998). Infância e Violência Fatal em Família: primeiras 
aproximações ao nível de Brasil. São Paulo: Iglu. [book] 
b. AZEVEDO, M. A. & GUERRA, V.N.A. (1998). Réquiem para as pequenas vítimas PEQUENAS. São 
Paulo: LACRI/IPUSP. (cd-rom) 
c. AZEVEDO, M.A. & GUERRA, V.N.A. (1998). Crônicas de morte anunciada. São Paulo: 
LACRI/IPUSP. (video) 
+++++ − Report totally completed. Published through the Projeto Multimídia that includes: 
1. AZEVEDO, M.A. & GUERRA, V.N.A. (2001). Mania de bater: a punição corporal doméstica de 
crianças e adolescentes no Brasil. São Paulo: Iglu. [book] 
English version: 
AZEVEDO, M.A. & GUERRA, V.N.A. (2001). Hitting mania: domestic corporal punishment of 
children and adolescents in Brazil. Translation Ann Puntch, Sergio Cataldi. São Paulo: Iglu. 
2. AZEVEDO, M.A. & GUERRA, V.N.A. (2001). Vozes da Infância: a palmada deseduca. São Paulo: 
LACRI/IPUSP e Núcleo de Cinema de Animação de Campinas. [video] 
3. AZEVEDO, M.A. & GUERRA, V.N.A. (2001). Palmada já era! São Paulo: LACRI/IPUSP. [Guide 
for parents and children] 
Voices of Youth 
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II 
 
CHILDHOOD AND YOUTH: HISTORICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
The introduction of an emerging approach that is still in the process of 
construction in terms of studying childhood and youth, has been observed from a 
scientific point of view, especially in the last decade of the 20th Century. What, in fact, 
is innovative about this kind of approach? 
a. That childhood and youth must be understood as social constructions: the 
prematurity of children and young people is a biological fact in the passage of 
the ages of life of individuals, but the way in which this “prematurity” is 
understood and takes on meaning is a cultural fact, which may vary from one 
society to the next, making, therefore, childhood and youth social institutions; 
b. that childhood and youth are not universal and sole phenomena; there is a 
variety of childhoods and youths that must be understood, for instance, in relation 
to class, gender, ethnic group, etc.; 
c. that the relationship of childhood and youth with Culture and Society must be 
studied from the particular perspective of childhood and youth and not from 
an adult vision; 
d. That children and young people must be seen as subjects in constructing and 
determining their own lives. They are not solely objects within a social 
structure. 
Of course, this new perspective in the analysis of childhood and youth did not 
arise spontaneously. Several areas of knowledge contributed towards this end. 
History was one of them. Some notes on the SOCIAL HISTORY OF CHILDHOOD AND 
YOUTH follow. 
A. Brief incursion through the History of Childhood 
Although there are concrete obstacles in following and retrieving the path of 
childhood from Antiquity to today, due to lack of specific documentation, some 
authors have risen to this task, despite difficulties encountered. The scientific work of 
two of them will be emphasized, since their work also provides relevant 
contributions towards understanding the phenomenon of domestic violence against 
children and adolescents. 
The first author is Philippe Ariès, who in his seminal treatise História Social da 
Criança e da Família (1978) [L’enfant et la vie familiale sous l’Ancien Regime (1973)], 
sustains the thesis that medieval society did not perceive childhood. He states: 
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In the Middle Ages, in the beginning of modern times and for a long time in the low er 
classes, children mix ed w ith adults as soon as they w ere able to stay on their own without their 
mothers or nannies − a few y ears after a late w eaning − that is, w hen they w ere about 7 years 
old. From this time on they entered immediately into the great community of mankind, 
participating w ith their y oung or older friends, in the ev ery day activ ities of w ork and play. The 
mov ement of collectiv e life threw together in the same current, ages and social conditions, 
w ithout leav ing any one w ith time for solitude and intimacy . In these dense and collectiv e 
ex istences there w as no place for a priv ate sector. 
Ariès states that, at this time, the socialization of the child was not assured nor 
controlled by the family. The child soon left his parents and by mingling with other 
adults learned things which it should know, helping these same adults to do them. 
Ariès records the existence of a superficial feeling towards the child that he calls “paparicação” (to be 
babied) – reserved to small infants in their first few years of life when they are still cute little things. People played 
with the child as if it were a little animal, a shameless little monkey. If it died – which was not rare – 
another child would substitute it. At the age of 7, the child began living in another 
house. Ariès tells us that, in this period, the feeling between parents and children, 
between husband and wife, was not necessary to the existence and equilibrium of the 
family: if it existed, so much the better. In reality, the exchanges of affection and social 
communications occurred, therefore, outside the family, in a dense and warm environment, made up of 
neighbors, friends, nannies and servants, young and old, women and men (...) The family unit was diluted in this 
environment. The community prevailed over the family. Ariès notices, however, – as of 
the end of the 17th Century – a brutal modification in this state of affairs. Bestowing 
childhood to a separate state coincides with the transition from feudalism to 
capitalism, because the growing middle classes wanted their children to be educated 
in a special way, so that they would be prepared to carry out the activities required 
of them as adults, as well as being able to adequately stand up to the power of 
aristocracy. All this led to a school system and to the modern concept of childhood. 
The child no longer mixed with adults and nor learnt about life through direct 
contact with them. The schooling process begins whereby children were kept far 
away – cloistered in schools – a type of quarantine, as stated by Ariès. Sending children 
to schools – one of the expressions of the great movement of moralization promoted 
by Catholic and Protestant reformers – could not be done without the family’s 
approval. As stated by Ariès, this family transformed itself, it became the place of necessary 
affection between parents themselves, and between parents and their children, something which did not exist 
before. This affection was revealed, above all, through the importance given to education. But another 
problem arose from this differentiated educational process of the previous period: 
both family and school yanked the child away from adult society. The attentions of the family, of the Church and 
of moralists and managers yanked away the freedom that the child enjoyed until then, among adults. They 
introduced it to the cane (...), in other words, the punishment usually reserved for convicts from the lower strata of 
society. From these developments, Ariès does not support the thesis that the growing perception in the 
special nature of childhood forcibly led to the creation of a better world for children; in reality, he argues to the 
contrary: that the development of the concept of childhood came together with the most severe methods of 
education (Pollock, 1990). 
Other authors support Ariès way of thinking in this sense, saying that the concept 
of childhood brought about an idea of subordination, of dependency and that, during the 17th Century, 
punishment against children became even more barbaric. This increase was due to the first 
results of a greater attention given to children, a by-product of an increased interest in the moral and academic 
Voices of Youth 
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enhancement of children and also of the doctrine of Original Sin (Pollock, 1990)3. In the17th Century, 
attention was given to biblical sayings, especially by the Puritans4: He that spareth his rod 
hateth his son, but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes (Proverbs 13:24); Withhold not correction from 
the child: for if thou beatest him with the rod, he shall not die (Proverbs 23:13); Thou shalt beat him with the 
rod, and shalt deliver his soul from hell (Proverbs 23:14). Besides the support found in biblical 
quotations in favor of corporal punishment of children, at the domestic level, there 
was another saying: Chasten thy son while there is hope, and let not thy soul spare for his crying 
(Proverbs 19:18). In fact, if on the one hand there was a tacit assumption of corporal 
punishment as a disciplinary method, on the other hand, this could not lead to the 
loss of a child’s life. Some of these historians provide proof in the sense that during 
the 17th Century it was common to break the will of a child, and corporal punishment was the best means of 
achieving this (Pollock, 1990). 
Lastly, it is important to emphasize that institutional development acceptance of formal 
education in schools with the consequent isolation of children from adult society was a pre-requisite for the 
appearance of sociological and psychological concepts of childhood (Pollock, 1990). Ariès further states 
that the evolution of the family (open to the outside world, to friends etc., that was 
associated with it), to its present nuclear form, had important consequences in the 
development of the concept of childhood, which in turn, is not separate from that of 
the family: the interest in childhood (...) is nothing more than a form, a particular expression of this more 
general feeling, the feeling of family (Pollock, 1990). 
Actually, the thesis in which Ariès furthers is that in most societies children 
integrate themselves very early on in adult society and that their segregation process 
(which he considers essentially undesirable) is a particular trait of the bourgeoisie. 
The second author that we would like to highlight is Lloyd deMause (1975). In 
the introduction of the book which he organized, he states: the history of childhood is a 
nightmare from which we have only recently begun to awaken. The further back in history one goes, the lower the 
level of child care, and the more likely children are to be killed, abandoned, beaten, terrorized and sexually 
abused. 
Lloyd deMause is considered to be a psycho-historian5 and his work is seen as 
the history of childhood, or more precisely, as the history of childcare in the western 
world. As from ancient times, he shows a smoothening of parent–child relationships 
which date back from periods when children were abandoned, exposed, badly 
treated and uncared for, up to the present, when parents sacrifice themselves for 
their children. He tries to discover, through what he calls psychogenic theory of 
history, how these transformations in the adult-child relationship came about, saying 
 
3 The Church, on the one hand, considered children innocent beings, who on the other hand, carried the weight of the 
Original Sin. This concept of the Original Sin allowed children to be treated with severity to “cure” their inherent iniquity. 
4 Greven (1992) tells us: Jesus never advocated corporal punishment. Nowhere in the New Testament does Jesus approve of 
the infliction of pain upon children by the rod or any other such implement, nor is He ever to have recommended any kind of 
physical discipline of children by any parent. Therefore, for this author the key text of the New Testament which values 
corporal punishment of children is Hebrews, attributed to the Apostle Paul and which at present is contested by experts, 
who define this text as anonymous. Catholics and many other religious groups have equally sustained traditions of using 
physical punishments both in families and in schools. But so far, very little has been written by or about Catholics 
concerning their attitudes toward and practice of corporal punishment. The subject of discipline among Catholics and Jewish 
people needs to be further explored. 
5 For the psycho-historian the why of history refers necessarily to a psychological why. From this viewpoint, history is made 
by men; to understand why men have done what they have, one must examine deeply the motives, no more, no less (…) 
One must question people and listen to them carefully, without taking their words literally (…) The historical why begins 
where the explanations end (…) Where the psycho-historian is situated is the terrain of the unconscious psychic 
determination of all human actions and omissions which make up history (Binion, 1986). 
Voices of Youth 
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that in reality parents regress to the psychic age of their children and work through the anxieties of that age in a 
better manner the second time they encounter them than they did during their own childhood (1975). 
In a more recent article, this author (1995) states that: 
Through my psy cho-historical study of childhood and of society I conclude that the history 
of humanity w as founded on the practice of v iolence against children. In the same w ay that 
family therapists hav e today discov ered that the purpose of domestic v iolence against children 
is to maintain families united as a means of solv ing their emotional problems, also that the 
routine of v iolence against children has been the most effectiv e w ay society has found of 
maintaining its collectiv e emotional homeostasis. Many families throughout history practiced 
infanticide, hitting and incest. Many States sacrificed and mutilated their children to allev iate 
the parent’s guilt. Ev en now aday s w e continue killing, mutilating, and submitting our children to 
hunger through our social, military and economic activ ities6. 
The work of deMause is quite polemical in that one could question the value of a 
psycho-historical construction supporting a parent-children interaction that changes 
through its own nature, without taking into account outside aspects, such as social, 
economic and political ones. On the other hand, he developed his theory from 
scattered information that may or may not be as reliable or may not allow 
conclusions that he himself reached. It is our belief, however, that already in 1995, 
having received criticism, this author tried incorporating some debates of a socio-
economic order which correct certain problems in his theoretical construction. His 
works demonstrates other frailties: treating phenomena such as sexual and physical 
domestic violence as a whole, without going into specifics, aside from working with 
several problems relating to childhood and adolescence such as infanticide, going off 
to war, etc., without separating them in a more coherent way, as if all violence 
directed towards childhood could be grouped together. 
By making a parallel between the theses of Ariès and deMause, it can be seen 
that the first author maintains that the traditional child was happy, and mixed with 
adults. From the moment that a special condition – childhood – was invented, 
bringing about a tyrannical concept of family that destroyed sociability and deprived 
children of freedom, confinement and severe punishment was inflicted upon them. 
deMause, on the other hand, departs from a contrary thesis whereby he shows that 
the situation of children improved considerably throughout the centuries. With 
reference to domestic corporal punishment, he says that there is an evident decrease 
of this practice as of the 17th Century, but it was the eighteenth century which saw the biggest 
decrease. The earliest lives I have found of children who may not have been beaten at all date from 1690 to 
1750. It was not until the nineteenth century that the old-fashioned whipping began to go out of style inmost of 
Europe and America, continuing longest in Germany, where 80% of German parents still admit to beating their 
children, a full 35% with canes (1975). deMause points out, however, that as corporal 
punishment began to decrease, other educational substitutes were found such as, for 
example, locking children in dark rooms, a practice found in bibliographies of the 
18th and 19th Centuries. He reports on the little Bastilles (fortresses) found in houses, 
where children were locked up for hours, days, with only bread and water, trying in 
 
6 Here the author severely criticizes the North American international policy which recruited many young people to the Gulf 
War, as well as its mechanisms of exploitation which left many children in various continents hungry and deprived. 
Therefore, a belligerent and exploitative policy taken to extremes. 
Voices of Youth 
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this way to correct behavior which was considered to be unsuitable by the parents7. 
He divides into periods, the relationship between parents and children, beginning in 
Antiquity up to the 20th Century, and passes through the stages of infanticide, of 
abandonment, ambivalence, intrusion, socialization, until the helping stage 
belonging to our century is reached, where parents are very much involved in the 
process of bringing up and educating their children. 
However, deMause could not answer why parental violence against children 
came to be, and today there are so many cases of this even though there is a type of 
relationship between parents and children which he considers to be satisfactory and 
encompassing. In reality, deMause also states that the farther back we go, to the 
beginning of the history of humanity, the more parents we find, who were not much 
involved with the care of their children and that if today we are shocked at the 
number of children who are victims of violence, just imagine how much larger this 
number would be, the farther back we go into History. That is why he says the 
following: the evidence which I have collected on the methods of disciplining children leads me to believe that 
a very large percentage of the children born prior to the 18th Century were what would today be termed “battered 
children” (1975). He further states that of the over 200 (two hundred) documents of 
advice on child-rearing that he examined, prior to the XVIII century, many approved 
of beating children severely, sanctioning it under the most varying circumstances, 
excluding documents by Plutarch, Palmieri and Sadoleto. The instruments used in 
these beatings included whips, rods, sticks, pieces of bamboo, of iron, etc. 
According to him, century after century, violent punishment was allowed, and 
public protesting was rare. Even humanists and teachers, with a reputation for 
gentleness, such as Petrarch, Ascham, Comenius and Pestalozzi approved of beating 
children. Milton’s wife complained that she hated to hear the screams of his nephews 
when he beat them. Even nobility was not immune to beatings, as can be seen from 
the childhood of Louis XIII. A whip was kept at his father’s side at the table, and 
when he was 25 months, regular whippings began, often on bare skin. He had 
frequent nightmares about his whippings that were meted out in the mornings when 
he awakened. After he became king, he still awoke at night, terrorized with the 
expectation of his morning whipping. Even on the day of his coronation he was 
whipped8. 
It is important to remember, as an addendum, that Perrot (1993) shows us that 
in 19th Century French society, the so called habit of beating children was present in all 
social classes, although it took on different functions and characteristics according to 
these same classes: among the bourgeoisie, more than in the aristocracy, children no longer were beaten so 
often at home. Here and there some whips and lashes made of string exist, but they are becoming more and 
more rejected. (...) In the country and among the lower classes of the city and among the small bourgeoisie 
 
7 It is interesting to note the many ghost-like figures used to frighten children throughout the ages, that were uncovered by 
deMause: the ancients had their Lamia and Striga who ate children raw (…) witches and demons in medieval times (…) 
After the Reformation (...) many children’s stories told of the tortures that God had in store for them in Hell (...) When religion 
was no longer the focus of the terrorizing campaign, figures closer to home were used: the werewolf will gulp you down; 
Blue Beard will chop you up (…) Boney (Bonaparte) will eat your flesh, the black man or the chimney sweeper will steal you 
away at night(…). (1975) 
8 Louis XIII, son of Henry IV (assassinated in 1610) was crowned king at the age of 9. In 1624, Louis XIII gave the task of 
governing the kingdom to Cardinal Richelieu, who became president of the Royal Council. The policies established by 
Richelieu were: to internally break the power of feudal aristocracy, establishing an absolute monarchy, and externally to fight 
the Habsburgs so as to give France the hegemony of Europe. When Richelieu died in 1642, the road to despotism was 
already set. 
Voices of Youth 
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beatings rain (sic) down. Beatings and whippings are fully admitted, as long as they do not exceed certain limits 
(...). 
The opposing theses of Ariès and deMause, especially opposing because one 
emphasizes that children’s nightmare began with the concept of childhood, and the 
other one that this nightmare is retreating into the history of humanity, show us that 
the true history of childhood has serious obstacles to overcome from the viewpoint of 
its reconstruction, since theoretical differences regarding it stand out. However, these 
differences show us how far we are in terms of being able to affirm that this or that 
period of history brought more or less violence to the parent-child relationship. 
Doubts still exist, and the only certainty we have is that upon reaching the new 
millennium we are still confronted with this phenomenon and the numbers are 
alarming. 
Certainly it can be said that Philippe Ariès’ work caused great impact, in that it 
questioned the universality of childhood. Yet Lloyd deMause upheld the notion of this 
universality, saying that childhood is the same; it is the parents who changed (James & Prout, 
1990). The debate among historians continues and what we can glean from it is that 
modern childhood is, without a doubt, historically specific. 
Another support for the idea of the social construction of childhood comes from 
anthropological studies on culture and personality. Although discussing the 
variability of the concept of childhood in different cultures, these studies are still 
tainted by a conventional perspective in that they maintain that socialization is a 
process molded by adults, giving little attention to the fact that childhood is a 
phenomenon in itself and that children can be active participants of their own 
educational process. 
In Psychology, the area dealing with children has grown, especially with the 
contributions of theoreticians on human development. 
More recently, in the context of Psychology, although the focus has remained 
on the individual, accepting the idea that childhood is socially constructed led to a 
heightened awareness of the importance of the social context within which 
psychological processes take place. 
In Britain, the publication in 1974 of a collection edited by Martin Richards, and a similar 
North American one, edited by Kessel and Siegel (1983), are w idely regarded as landmarks of 
the new approach. The underpinnings of this w ere later described by Richards as: the criticism 
of a psy chology based on univ ersal law s that w ere supposedto hold good across all societies 
and at all historical times. It w as argued that such terms as ‘the mother’ and ‘the child’ not only 
conv ey ed a meaningless generality but also misrepresented the relationship betw een 
indiv idual and social w orlds and portray ed social relationships as if they w ere fix ed by laws of 
nature. (James & Prout, 1990) 
Different contributions arising from different disciplines brought about the 
discussion on the concept of the social construction of childhood. But we must not forget 
that many social movements have contributed towards this, such as the women’s 
movement, those against psychiatry, those relating to human rights, etc. 
Voices of Youth 
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However, the emergence of a new paradigm for studying childhood as a social 
construction has encountered a series of obstacles that arise from various areas of 
knowledge. 
First, it has to be recognized that the still dominant concepts of ‘dev elopment’ and 
‘socialization’ are ex traordinarily resistant to criticism. They persist despite all that has been 
said against them. Richards (1986:3), for ex ample, laments that despite w idespread discussion 
of the need for cognitiv e and dev elopmental psy chology to locate itself w ithin a social and 
cultural contex t, only a minority of recently published empirical research ev en faintly considers 
this a possibility . Similarly , in sociology , the concept of socialization continues to dominate 
theory and research about children. The lack of change here stands out sharply in, for 
ex ample, the sociology of the family . Whilst thinking about w omen and the family has been 
rev olutionized by feminist critiques, thinking about childhood remains relativ ely static, like the 
still point at the center of a storm. (James & Prout, 1990) 9 
These authors also point out the contribution of some female American 
sociologists who attribute these obstacles in the area of sociology, for example, to the 
fact that this area is dominated by men and that, consequently, they do not value 
child care, much less the activities produced by them. 
James & Prout (1990) bring our attention also to the fact that notions such as 
socialization, for instance, are registered in the practice of social assistants and 
teachers and that this gives rise to some difficulties regarding a more consistent 
criticism, making this attitude be seen not only as a question of habit, of convenience, 
of false awareness, but very much related to what Foucault calls the regimen of truth 
(1977): he suggests that this operates rather like a self-fulfilling prophecy: ways of thinking about childhood fuse 
with institutionalized practices to produce self- conscious subjects (teachers, parents and children) who think (and 
feel) about themselves through the terms of those ways of thinking. The’ truth’ about themselves and their 
situation is thus self-validating. Breaking into this to achieve a new ‘truth’ (produced by another way of thinking 
about childhood) may prove difficult. (James & Prout, 1990) 
And finally, this new way of thinking about childhood, using as a basis the 
development of new studies allows that these new studies enlighten the policy on 
childhood. Furthermore, these studies are attempts to give voice to children and 
adolescents, who, up until now, have seen measures taken in view of their best interest, 
without being consulted. 
B. Brief incursion through the History of Youth 
Just as in the case of childhood, the HISTORY OF YOUTH is still far from being 
known and, according to some theoreticians, perhaps even of being known. This 
happens because there are various obstacles to overcome. The first is the lack of 
homogeneity regarding the vocabulary dealing with this topic. 
 
9 Sociology, especially functional sociology, also emphasized a view that underestimates the value of a child compared to the 
value attributed to an adult. Davis’ words are eloquent: The most important functions carried out by the individual for society 
are those done when adult, not when immature. Thus the treatment that society offers the child is fundamentally preparatory 
(…) Any doctrine which considers the necessities of children as priorities and those of organized society as secondary is a 
sociological anomaly (Davis, 1949). From this perspective, a large part of the theory and research on childhood resulting 
from this orientation centralizes its attention in the institution of the family, as well as in the educational processes and 
socialization, a focus whereby childhood is not even a unit of observation, nor a category of independent analysis (Pilotti & 
Rizzini, 1995). 
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According to Levi & Schmitt (1996): 
The w ord boy can appear in a chanson de geste to designate a y oung w arrior (we thought 
of Infanzie del Cid), in that the Roman or mediev al notion of juventus shifts the limit w ithin 
w hich w e today place y outh, further dow nw ards. To the contrary , w hen the terms remain 
apparently immutable, their semantic contents do not stop renov ating. In this manner, if w e 
compare the conceptual subdiv isions of Antiquity w ith our representations, w e could also obtain 
approx imate correlations (deep dow n, w e alw ay s adopt the same terms: childhood, 
adolescence, y outh), but w e hav e to recognize that these w ords don’t hav e the same meaning 
any more. 
This is why it is necessary to refuse another temptation that usually provokes 
historians, making their work difficult. It has to do with a simplification which was 
also pointed out by Levi & Schmitt (1996): the illusion (...) of a linear history that develops according 
to continuous modules and in a regular rhythm from a hypothetical beginning until a completely inscribed 
conclusion in its premises. Over this rule a regular process of evolution can be imagined, starting from the youth 
of traditional societies, which is defined by its ritual roles and costumes, to a “modern” youth, liberated from any 
constraints, free of all taboos, which abolished all differences between both sexes from behavior, from ways of 
dressing (let’s say, for example, unisex jeans) and from the possibilities of professional options. Much to the 
contrary, the History of Youth is not characterized by a continuity in development, 
nor by a homogeneity in content. The reason is that, just like with childhood, youth 
– aside from being an age of life – is also a social construction. 
As with other periods of life, and perhaps, even more accentuated, youth is a 
cultural and social construction, which is characterized by its marked character of 
limits. 
In fact, it situates itself inside the moveable margins between childhood 
dependency and adult autonomy, in that period of pure change and unrest where the 
promise of adolescence happens, between sexual immaturity and maturity, between 
the development and flourishing of mental abilities, between the lack of and the 
acquisition of authority and power. 
In this sense, no physiological limit can analytically identify a phase of life 
which can be better explained by the cultural determination of human societies, 
according to the way in which they try to identify, to give order and sense to 
something which seems typically transient, that is, chaotic and disorderly. This 
period of life can not be clearly bound by demographical quantifications, nor by 
juridical definitions, that is why it seems to us substantially useless trying to identify 
and establish clear limits, as others have done. 
On the contrary, what is interesting, is exactly this marginal or borderline 
character of youth, the fact that it is something that cannot be given a stable and 
concrete definition. Otherwise, it is precisely its transitory nature that charges this 
cultural constructionwith symbolic meanings, with promises and threats, with 
potentialities and frailties, which in all societies is looked upon ambiguously, yet at 
the same time with caution and full of expectations. In this ambivalent and cross-
eyed way of looking, where attraction and suspicion are also involved, societies have 
always constructed youth as an intrinsically unstable social fact that is irreducible to 
the rigidities of demographic and legal data, or, better yet, as a cultural reality with 
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endless values and symbolic uses, and not only as a simple social fact, which can 
immediately be analyzed. 
Besides, it must be pointed out that, within the principles that serve as a basis 
for classifying people, age has a specific and clear characteristic: from the 
individual’s viewpoint, it is, by definition, a transitory condition. Belonging to a 
specific age group − most particularly to youth − represents for each individual a 
provisional condition, contrary to placing the individual within the framework of a 
social class (which is very difficult to break out of, unless the individuals can fulfill, 
in certain cases, their hopes of social mobility) and contrary to the sexual definition 
(which is unequivocal, fixed once and for all). More appropriately, individuals do not 
belong to age groups, they cross them. It is precisely this essential character of being 
on the threshold, which is typical of youth, together with a longer or shorter time in 
the condition of being young, which, in the final analysis, characterizes youth 
(however, in different ways according to different societies), determining not only 
social attitudes, the attitudes of others on their behalf, but also the vision that young 
people have of themselves. 
Mindful of this, it must be remembered that nothing is unchangeable or 
universal. In a cold society, or a structurally static society, certain legal and symbolic 
processes will have the tendency of underlining predominantly the elements of 
continuity and of reproducing the roles attributed to youths. On the other hand, a 
hotter society, more predisposed towards recognizing the value of change, will more 
easily admit the necessarily conflicting character of the transition from one age 
period to the next and of the transmission of the set of rules among generations. 
Therefore, there is no HISTORY OF YOUTH, but HISTORIES that concern YOUTH and, 
above all, YOUNG PEOPLE who are part of the mesh of specific social relations, linked 
to contexts and to distinct historical periods. 
Just like childhood, youth is also a concrete condition of existence. Just as one 
cannot talk about the infantile nature10, one also cannot talk about the juvenile 
nature. There are many ways of being a child and many ways of being young, 
depending on the historical context and on the socio-economic, political, cultural and 
psychological conditions. A brief incursion through the History of Youth will allow 
us to identify how youths have been treated differently according to the image that 
societies have of them and according to their social roles. 
Consequently, throughout the ages, young people (as well as children) have 
been seen both with hostility – when they are thought to be the source of disorder 
 
10 The condition of being a child 
The idea of child nature remits to traits which have an absolute and universal value: the child, in itself, is wild, submissive 
to its will, innocent, spontaneous, undisciplined, etc. The idea of a child condition refers to a specific situation of childhood 
without defining, however, qualities or behaviors that would inevitably be found in all children. The child is a being in 
process of growth, whose personality is undergoing formation, and who lives in a social environment made up of 
adults and to which it is not immediately adapted: these observations are valid for all children in any civilization; 
regardless of the social class they belong to and are what one can call as the condition of being a child. But growth, the 
formation of the personality and social adaptation occur in a social environment that is not the same for all children. They 
turn into varying social behaviors. All children grow up, but each one experiences growing up in a different way, socially and 
psychologically. Growing up is not the same for the child who wants to escape from an oppressive family situation and for 
those who increasingly liken themselves to their parents who they admire. By the same token, the first born of large families 
who grow up with responsibilities frequently too heavy for them, and children who are over protected by their parents, do not 
experience growing up in the same way. It is necessary to psychologically understand children in function of their life 
conditions, that is, both in their condition as children, and in their true social condition. (Charlot, 1977) 
Voices of Youth 
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and aberration – as well as benevolence – when exalted as saviors of the Nation or of 
Humanity. That is why, as in the case of childhood, the HISTORY OF YOUTH brings 
many SCENARIOS OF VIOLENCE, some of which are transcribed in the following 
paragraphs. They are examples and are in the form of historical fragments seen in the 
context of time and period, because after all, a history of youths exists only if 
inscribed in a history of politics, religion, family, law and even of feasts and sports11. 
 GREEK YOUTH 
CRETAN SEXUAL INITIATION 
The Cretans have a very peculiar custom when it comes to amorous relationships. In 
effect, it is not through persuasion that lovers achieve what they so avidly seek, but rather 
through abduction. Three days before the event, the lover announces to his friends that 
he plans to abduct his intended. Hiding the desired adolescent or not letting him proceed 
along the intended route of the abduction would be, from the lover’s point of view, the 
biggest of insults because it would appear, in everyone’s eyes, that the adolescent is not 
worthy of belonging to a lover of such a high standing as himself. In this manner, the 
friends unite and certify that the abductor is equal or superior to the adolescent in all 
aspects, in particular, regarding class, and they pursue him and take the adolescent 
gently away from him, all in a friendly manner and only to give continuity to the custom, 
and then they happily return him so that he can be taken definitively. 
If, on the contrary, the abductor does not seem to have sufficient class, the young man 
is seriously taken away and no longer returned. Whatever the outcome, the chase is only 
over when the abducted is taken to the abductor’s andria. It is not the most handsome 
young man who is worthy of being loved, but rather the one who has distinguished 
himself through courage and uprightness. After welcoming giving him presents the lover 
leaves the city with the young man and leads him to a place of his choice. All those who 
took part in the abduction accompany them, celebrating and hunting with them for two 
months − the law does not allow an adolescent to be retained for longer − after which 
they return to the city. The adolescent is then allowed to leave, but not before receiving 
military equipment, an ox, and a vessel, as determined by the law, aside from many other 
valuable presents. The lover’s friends tend to band together and help share the heavy 
expenses the lover has to face. 
As to the young man, he offers sacrifices to Zeus and a banquet to those that brought 
him back. Then, he makes a public declaration about his relationship, whereby he states 
if he has any complaints or not, because the law determines that if he was a victim of 
violence during the abduction he can ask for reparation and be removed from under the 
lover’s power. On the other hand, it is consideredinfamous for a well-educated 
adolescent, of high standing, not to arrange a lover, because otherwise he would be 
considered as having some kind of shortcoming. Contrary to this, honors await the 
parastátal, name give to those who were the object of an abduction: the best places in 
public meeting areas and in stadiums are reserved for them, and they have the right to 
stand out from others by primping themselves with clothes provided by the lover. This 
right is not only restricted to the period of his adolescence, because when he reaches 
adulthood, he continues to use a particular clothing to show that he was once a kleimós, 
a term which among Cretans means eròmenos, while the lover is known as philétor. 
Both in the Spartan model, as in the Cretan one, education of adolescents involved 
some form of pederasty. 
 
11 It’s what some historians understand as “total social fact”, the main lesson of M. Mauss’ work, Dumézil’s great teacher. 
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JEWISH YOUTH IN EUROPE 
In Nuremberg, at the end of the XV century, 24% of all Jew ish men had some 
kind of job (either servants or teachers) in other people’s houses, and fourteen out 
of fifteen homes sheltered one of these persons. In Alessandria, the number of 
servants (including clerks and apprentices) that lived in other people’s homes 
remained relatively constant at 7%, betw een 1734 and 1761. In Jewish homes with 
at least one servant it varied betw een 20% and 30%. In Trieste, in 1769, domestic 
servants w ere 10% of the entire Jew ish population, and almost one fourth of all 
Jew ish homes had at least one male or female servant. 
In some cases, like the small Piedmont community of Ivrea, w hose ten homes 
w ere headed, in 1791, in great part by merchants and bankers, 70% had maids or 
servants, w hich comprised 14% of the local Jew ish population. The numbers were 
considerably low er in the case of Polish Jew s. In the area of Lublin, according to 
the 1764 census, about 7% of Jew ish families, both in the countryside and in the 
city, had Jew ish maids that lived under the same roof. In the relatively small 
Jew ish community of Opatow , the number of homes w ith servants of either sex 
w as, during the 1760 decade, above 8%... 
No study on the life of these servants, w ho w ere for the most part not only 
young, but single as w ell, can ignore the sexual element that frequently molded 
their relationship w ith their employers. In the Polish community of Opatow, a well-
documented record has survived of tw o cases betw een 1759 and 1778, involving 
sexual exploitation of domestic maids by men other than the employers. 
Exploitation by the employers themselves w as much more commonplace and, 
unless it resulted in pregnancy, it generally w ent unnoticed. 
In Casale, one of the Piedmont communities (…), a head of family called 
Yedidiah Luzzatto, member of a devout brotherhood, w as accused by his maid, 
Rachel Foa, of being the father of her child after having seduced her on various 
occasions in the spring and beginning of summer in 1715, including the first night 
of Easter! 
THE FLOWER OF EVIL: MEDIEVAL ITALY 
THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN YOUTH AND CHILDREN 
Above all, even outside this mechanical relationship, the giovani have the word and, 
when possible, invade the public scene of which they are generally separated from. It is 
what happens in Venice at night as described in statements. It is what happens in 
Florence in the time of Savonarola. When the preacher declares that the reformation of 
society falls upon children, a fight between fanciull i and giovani is unleashed. 
The task of rooting out the city of all its sins, of purging Florence of all its 
l icentiousness is handed over to the children. Throughout the city and the countryside, 
they carry out their task with such zeal, that no one is able to resist them. Taverns are 
closed, card and dice games are forbidden, all pomp, vanity and luxury – not only 
women’s hairdos but books and pictures as well – are condemned by these zealous 
agents of God. The time for repenting begins precursor to the reign of a new Jerusalem. 
Gamblers flee, women dress themselves decently, all avoid sin and, above all, 
detestable vice. These bands of children who are prepared to act with violence, place all 
their habitual arms in God’s service; stone fights and forced collections during Carnival 
are practiced here on behalf of the poor. Grouped according to neighborhood and 
organized into four associations, the fanciull i del frate establish a reign of terror in their 
surroundings and, on days established by Savonarola, march in procession all dressed in 
white and carrying an olive branch – a public image of innocence. 
The children sing and it is believed they can hear the voice of the Lord. Against them 
rise the giovani, scelerati, giovanastri dissolutissimi et di ribalda vita, persone da fare ogni 
Voices of Youth 
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male… Groups are organized around some noble youths. And these compagnacci, these 
arrabiati [possessed] make another kind of music. Shouts, insults and bell ringing at night, 
shouting and bells also during the sermons. Putrefying donkey skin, blessing the faithful 
with an onion speared on a sword, and many other ways of bringing bad smells into 
sacred places, of perverting the rites and of causing the reign of Christ to fall into ridicule. 
All these historical fragments show us that − contrary to childhood as victim of 
violence − youth is normally more demanding and, for this reason, it is not 
uncommonly viewed as being potentially more dangerous: children – differently 
from youths – would be more easily colonized, domesticated… Perhaps that is why the 
COLOR GREEN has been considered the COLOR OF YOUTH. 
THE COLOR OF YOUTH 
In the novels of chivalry, a “green” knight, that is, one whose coat of arms, 
banner and saddlecloth are green, is always a young, impetuous person, whose 
arrival or appearance in a specific episode will inevitably bring about disorder. 
Green can assume a negative or positive meaning, because, like any color, it is 
ambivalent. In encyclopedias, allegorical literature and treatises on heraldry it is not 
only the color of youth but also of hope, of love, (usually of unfaithful love) and of 
luck. In a negative sense, green evokes licentiousness, disorder, misfortune, sickness, 
poison, and sometimes the devil. If associated to yellow it symbolizes madness or 
hypocrisy. 
Evidently the idea of a forest, of nature in full growth, makes green the color of 
youth. And, since it is the color of youth, it is also the color of hope, of love, of 
disorder and inconstancy. However, no matter what techniques, pigments or paints 
used, medieval painters always had difficulty dominating green colors. These colors 
are the most unstable; they penetrate the fibers of cloth, parchment, and molten glass 
or metal less easily. It was difficult to fix them, densify them, make them lighter, 
more limpid, luminous. That is why, maybe, there is a possible link between 
chemistry and ideology: the instability of the pigment could correspond to a 
symbolic instability. Just like green hues, young people are voluble, unstable, and at 
times, dangerous. 
If the color green is rare in western imagery, it is not, nonetheless, absent. The 
fact that it is rare can favor its use dense with meaning. In the Iluminura, the 12th to 
the 14th Century, green is often used as a peripheral color, a color for margins, 
contrary to red and blue, which were central colors. That is why it is used to 
emphasize the subordinate condition or depreciatory character of the subjects who 
are dressed in green. That is why there is also a spatial approximation between 
this color and young people, who are also peripheral or marginal. The coding of 
images and the symbolismof colors are joined together to associate green and 
youth. Color minor juventuti inferior! 
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Voices of Youth 
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III 
 
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: 
THEORETICAL CONSIDERATIONS 
In the words of Adorno (1988): 
Violence is a form of social relationship; it is inex orably attached to the w ay mankind 
produces and reproduces social conditions of ex istence. In this light, v iolence ex presses 
standards of sociability , w ay s of life, updated models of current behav ior in a society at a 
specific moment of time of its historical process. Understanding its phenomenology cannot 
prescind references to social structures: it also cannot prescind reference to the subjects which 
promote it w hile a social ex perience (...) At the same time that it ex presses relationships 
among social classes it also ex presses interpersonal relationships (...) it is present in inter-
subjectiv e relationships that arise betw een men and w omen, betw een adults and children, 
betw een professionals of different categories. Its most v isible result is the conv ersion of 
subjects into objects, becoming things (...) Violence is simultaneously the denial of v alues 
considered to be univ ersal: freedom, equality , and life. If w e understand, like classical political 
philosophy did, that freedom is essentially ability , w illingness, determination and man’s natural 
right, then v iolence as a manifestation of subjection and turning humans into objects can only 
go against the possibility of building a society of free men (...) v iolence is not necessarily a 
death sentence, or, at least, this does not fulfill its ex clusiv e meaning. Its reference is life, 
how ev er, a reduced life, placed w ithin bonds, alienated; not life in its fullness, in its 
manifestation of complete liberty . Violence is a permanent menace to life due to its constant 
allusion to death, to suppression, annulment, to the end. 
Domestic violence is related to structural violence (violence among social 
classes, inherent to unequal societies). However, it has other determinants that are 
not only structural. It is a type of violence that permeates all social classes while 
violence of an interpersonal nature. 
While inter-subjective, domestic violence also consists of a: 
a. transgression of the disciplining power of the adult, converting the age difference 
adult-child/adolescent, into an inequality of inter-generation power; 
b. denial of the value of freedom: it demands that the child or adolescent be an 
accomplice to the adult, in a pact of silence; 
c. victimization process by constraining the will and desire of the child or 
adolescent, submitting them to the adult’s power, so as to satisfy the interests, 
expectations and passions of this adult. 
That is why the abuse-victimization process is one that consists of objectifying 
the child or adolescent, of reducing it to an object of VIOLENCE. 
To synthesize, domestic violence against children and adolescents: 
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→ is an interpersonal violence; 
→ is an abuse of the disciplinary and coercive power of parents or persons 
responsible for taking care of the child/adolescent; 
→ is a victimization process which sometimes prolongs itself for months and 
even years; 
→ is a process wherein the victim becomes subjugated and objectified; 
→ is a form of violation of the essential rights of the child and adolescent as 
people and, therefore, a denial of the fundamental human values such as 
life, freedom, security; 
→ has its privileged ecology in the family. Since the family belongs to the 
private sphere, domestic violence is covered up with the traditional 
characteristic of secrecy. 
Therefore, domestic violence against children and adolescents 
represents all acts or omissions practiced by parents, family members or 
responsible people against children and/or adolescents which – being 
capable of causing pain and/or physical, sexual and/or psychological harm 
to the victim –on the one hand it involves a transgression of the 
power/duty of protection of the adult and, on the other hand, it involves 
making the child an object, that is, denying the right which children and 
adolescents have of being treated as subjects and people in a peculiar 
period of their development. 
There are five kinds of known domestic violence: neglect, and physical, sexual, 
psychological and fatal violence12. 
We will focus exclusively on psychological violence. 
 
A TALE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE 
FREUDI AN 
Four we were, the daughters of my mother. 
Among them I alway s held the worst place. 
Two preceded me – they were beautif ul, pampered. 
I should hav e been the last, howev er, 
Another came, who became the y oungest. 
When I was born, my elderly Father agonized, 
Soon af ter, he died. 
I grew up, a daughter without a f ather, 
Second in a batch of sisters. 
I was sad, nerv ous and ugly . 
Jaundiced, pale f ace 
Wobbly legs, f alling f or nothing. 
Those who saw me – said: 
− This little girl is a picture 
of her old sick father. 
I was scared of stories 
that I heard, so, to tell: 
ghost stories, werewolv es, she-mules with no head. 
 
12 For a more profound study of neglect and fatal familial violence, see Azevedo, M.A., and Guerra, V.N.A. (1996). Infância 
e Violência Fatal em Família – Primeiras Aproximações ao nível de Brasil. São Paulo: Iglu. 
 For a deeper approach to the study of domestic sexual violence, see Azevedo, M.A (1991). Infância e Violência Sexual 
Doméstica: um tabu menor de um Brasil menor. São Paulo: IPUSP. (Thesis for Full Professor). To learn more about 
domestic physical violence, see Azevedo, M.A. & Guerra, V.N.A. (2001). Hitting Mania: Domestic Corporal Violence of 
Children and Adolescents in Brazil. São Paulo: Iglu. 
Voices of Youth 
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Af f licted souls of the nether world and of the dev il. 
I had wobbly legs 
And continually scraped knees, 
Cut, grazed. 
From f alling so much. 
I f ell carelessly . 
I f ell on the steps 
I f ell on the pav ing around the house. 
I cried, I annoy ed. 
From within the house they ordered 
− Get up, wibbly-wobbly. 
My wobbly legs didn’t help. 
I cried, I sobbed. 
Inside the house they would answer: 
− Get up, dumb-bell. 
I f ell carelessly … 
I fell on the steps 
I f ell on the pav ing around the house. 
I cried, called, complained. 
From within the house impatiently : 
− Get up, wobbly legs… 
And wibbly -wobbly , dumb-bell, wobbly legs 
would get up on her own. 
My toy s… 
Little coconuts. 
Rag dolls. 
Bits of crockery . 
Forked twigs. 
Unending v oy ages… 
My imaginary world 
Blended with reality . 
And the house cut me up: Tattle-tale! 
Unwanted company – alway s ready 
to go out with my sisters, 
y ou should’v e seen 
the lengths they would go to 
and the stories told, 
to go out together 
and leav e me alone, 
alway s at home. 
The street… ah, the street!… 
(Play f ul attraction, wish of a child, 
suggestiv e world f ull of marv elous discov eries) 
− f orbidden to girls of my times. 
Rigid f amiliar prejudices, 
abusiv e educational norms 
− Walled in. 
The street. The bridge. Passers-by , 
ev en the stream, f lowing beneath the window, 
I saw it through a broken pane, 
of a warped window. 
In the ghostly quiet of the house, 
It was f orbidden, it annoy ed, the loud v oice, 
the guf f aws, the sudden shrieks, 
the turbulent activ ity of children. 
Containment… motiv ation… Curbed behav ior, 
Limiting, checking excitements, 
Stepping on f eelings. 
Valiant deeds within me… 
A heroic world, sublimated 
Super-imposed, unsuspecting, 
Mixed with reality . 
And the house alienated, unf oreseen gestation,Acrimoniously repeating: 
– Tattle-tale! 
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the repulsion of the ablativ e 
burned. 
Intimidated, diminished. Misunderstood. 
Imposed attitudes, f alse, counterf eit. 
Brutal reprehensions, humiliating. 
And the f ear of speaking ... 
And the certainty of alway s being in the wrong .. 
Learn to shut up. 
Idiot girl, listening without answering. 
Hence, at the end of my lif e, 
This ash that cov ers me… 
This obscure, bitter, anarchical desire 
of hiding my self , 
of changing being, not being, 
to v anish, to disappear, 
and reappear 
as an anony mous creature 
without class or f amily commitment. 
I was sad, nerv ous and ugly . 
A cry baby . 
Jaundiced, pale f ace, 
With wobbly legs, f alling f or nothing. 
An old uncle, who saw me so 
would say : 
− This daughter of my niece is an idiot. 
Better if she hadn’ t been born! 
Better not to hav e been born… 
Ugly , scared and sad. 
Brought up the old f ashioned way , 
− scolds and punishments. 
Scorned, dominated. 
How much work I gav e 
to twist and retwist, 
to measure and unmeasure. 
To make me so another, 
dif f erent, 
than what I should be. 
Sad, nerv ous and ugly . 
Jaundiced, swollen f ace. 
Wobbly legs, f alling f or nothing. 
The picture of an old man. 
Unwanted among the sisters. 
Without a Mother’s lov e. 
Without a Father’s protection… 
− better not to hav e been born. 
I nev er achiev ed any thing in lif e. 
Inf eriority alway s restrained me. 
And thus, without a f ight, I settled down 
to the mediocrity of my destiny . 
FROM: CORALINA, Cora (1985). Poemas dos becos de Goiás e estórias mais. São Paulo: Global. 
 
Voices of Youth 
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IV 
 
DOMESTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE: A CONTROVERSIAL CONCEPT 
The concept of DOMESTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE against Children and 
Adolescents is controversial in various aspects. 
A. The concept 
Historically, the constructo13 DOMESTIC PSYCHOLOGICAL VIOLENCE was coined by 
feminist literature as part of the struggle by women to make public everyday 
violence suffered by them in private. The socio-political movement, that for the first 
time brought attention to the phenomenon of violence against women by their 
partners, began in 1971, in England, with the milestone of the first “SHELTER HOUSE” 
for beaten women, an initiative which spread throughout Europe and the United 
States (middle of the 70s), reaching Brazil in the decade of the 80s. 
It was in 1985 that Azevedo began a pioneering research to map the nature of 
domestic violence against women in the city of São Paulo. According to the 
researcher, from the 2,316 police reports registered in 1981 in that city, and relative to 
crimes against women, 1,082 (46.72%)were registered crimes of malicious assault 
and battery, and 937 (40.46%) were crimes involving assault and battery. Analyzing 
the themes which led to the various ways and modes of domestic physical violence 
that were reported, the author discovered that behind the scenes of a battered 
woman there were behaviors that bear another type of violence: violence that is 
psychological in nature, such as: 
• Mental cruelty ⇒ restricting freedom, suspicion, bad character, jealousy , ex cessiv e 
demands, etc. 
• Verbal offenses ⇒ insults, v erbal aggression, etc. 
• Sex ual relationships outside marriage ⇒ partner finds lov ers ostensibly outside the 
marriage. 
Although the focus of the study was domestic violence of a physical nature, 
Azevedo (1985) understands that psychological violence is another important form of 
family violence. According to her, 
v iolence against w omen is a specific form of interpersonal v iolence, perpetrated by a man 
against a w oman. The v iolence can be perpetrated as an end in itself (ex pressiv e v iolence) or 
as a mechanism to force the w oman to submit herself to the impositions of the man 
 
13 The term constructo means a concept deliberately and consciously invented or adopted, for a specific scientific end. 
[Bastos, Lilia da Rocha et alii (1979). Manual para a elaboração de projetos e relatórios de pesquisa, teses e dissertações. 
Rio de Janeiro: Zahar. Glossário de termos básicos em pesquisa científica] 
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 26 
(instrumental v iolence). Expressive violence usually constitutes w hat w e denote as sexual 
abuse. Instrumental violence usually includes w hat w e know as physical abuse, beating a 
w omen, and psychological abuse or perverse sweetness, although these forms can also be 
ex ercised as ends in themselv es. 
Sinclair (1985), a Canadian author, understands that psychological violence 
would be different from emotional or verbal abuse, to the extent that it would have a 
greater power of inducing fear in the victim because threats of violence are 
accompanied by at least one episode of physical abuse. 
Nonetheless, the main difference between domestic physical violence and 
psychological violence lies in the fact that the first one involves acts of corporal 
aggression to the victim, whereas in the second case, the aggression comes from 
words, gestures, looks directed at the victim, without necessarily having a physical 
contact. 
From the studies of victimology14, Marie France Hirigoyen (2000) (psychiatrist, 
psychoanalyst and family therapist) defines psychological violence as a real process of 
moral destruction (...) [whose attack is directed to] the identity of the other individual and extracting from it all 
individuality (...) which can lead to mental illness or suicide. She calls this process moral assault 
and/or perverse violence, recognizing that it is possible to destroy someone merely 
with words, looks, implied meanings: a true psychic murder. By perverse, the author 
means that this has to do with an abuse and not a pathology. Perversity does not arise from 
a psychiatric disturbance, but rather from cold rationale, combined with an inability to consider other human 
beings. The abuse that is characteristic of this violence, according to the author, begins 
with an abuse of power, proceeds with a narcissistic abuse – in the sense that the other completely loses his self 
esteem – and can reach, at times, a sexual abuse. Also according to this psychiatrist, and as a 
result of her clinical experience, she was able to identify some characteristics of 
Psychological Violence: 
1ª the most frightening thing is that it is, above all, an UNSPEAKABLE violence: the 
victim, even if he/she recognizes his suffering, cannot truly imagine that there has been a violence (...) 
Many times the doubt persists: could it be that I am inv enting all this, like some people hav e told me? 
2ª the aggressor tends to reproduce his destructive behavior in all circumstances of life: in his workplace, 
with his spouse, with the children (...) These are individuals who leave behind them a path strewn with 
corpses or living-dead; 
3ª it is difficult to detect because the aggressions are subtle, there are no visible vestiges (...) [and 
frequently] the victim is considered an accomplice or even responsible for the perverted relationship (...) 
This is denying the extent of control that paralyzes the victim and doesn’t allow it to defend itself. 
This polymorphous nature of Psychological Violence explains why it can 
permeate the context of many institutions (family, school, office, etc.) and why its 
victims are always the weaklings in each of these situations (women, children and 
the elderly in a family; students at school, employees in companies, etc.). 
That is why, already in 1979 and 1980, we find in Alice Miller’s15 works, the 
accusation of cruelty with children, always disguised as education for the good of 
 
14 Victimology is the discipline, arising from criminology, thatstudies the reasons that lead an individual to become a victim, as 
well as the processes of victimization, its consequences and the rights that the individual can demand. 
15 Alice Miller is an internationally reknown specialist in topics related to the Child Psychology and also author of many 
publications devoted to education, which are well known in Germany, France and the United States. 
Voices of Youth 
 27 
the child. In a small book published in Germany, in 1979, and translated in Brazil as 
O drama da criança bem dotada (1986) [DAS DRAMA DES BEGABTEN KINDES und die Suche 
nach dem wahren selbst.], Alice Miller shows how parents can deform the emotional 
life of their children, appropriating themselves of and manipulating their psychic 
lives as if the child were a catexis narcísica of the father or of the mother. In this 
ruinous process, the child is loved at the price of having to let go being who they are. 
Referring to various examples, for the most part extracted from the world of Arts, the 
author shows how this process is more prevalent in gifted children, who, due to their 
increased sensitivity, capture better the expectations of their parents, to whom they 
seek to mold themselves, sacrificing their true SELF. 
In the book published in Germany, in 1980, and edited in USA, in 1984, with the 
suggestive title of Hidden Cruelty in Child Rearing and the Roots of Violence, the author 
begins with the assertion that there are many forms of cruelty which, even today, are not known because 
the damage it causes children and its consequences are not sufficiently studied. In this book, the author 
shows how, throughout more than two hundred years, Traditional Education has 
molded a despotic pedagogy16 – a mixture of corporal punishment and humiliation – 
aimed at breaking the child’s will so as to domesticate and transform it into a docile 
and obedient being under the adult’s will. 
Using three portraits of children educated through the use of these practices 
(Cristiane F., drugged and prostituted; Jurgen Bartsch, young German murderer and 
Adolf Hitler), Alice Miller shows what are the tactics and consequences of what 
would be a real war of extermination against the true SELF. 
This is, without a doubt, Domestic Psychological Violence, although the author 
does not use this name. It is no wonder then, that a little later, literature about 
Domestic Violence against Children and Adolescents incorporates the discussion 
regarding the concept of Psychological Violence. Along this same line, we will see 
that new terms will arise such as abuse and mistreatment17, in connection with the 
adjectives: emotional or psychological. In this manner, some authors made a 
distinction between emotional and psychological abuse (O’Hagan, 1993), describing 
the first as any and all behavior, by parents or care-givers, that is openly hostile or 
neglectful in relation to children and that is capable of harming their self-esteem and 
self-confidence. The second would involve a more subtle type of conduct (such as 
perverse sweetness) but equally damaging to the child’s personality. 
Garbarino, Guttmann & Seeley (1986), as well as McGee & Wolfe (1991) find it 
more appropriate to talk in terms of psychological mistreatment so as to cover both 
types of abuse. According to the first authors, it deals with a well articulated attack – carried 
out by an adult – and directed at the development of the ‘self’ and at the social competence of a child. 
In 1995, the American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children defined 
Psychological Violence as follows: 
 
16 The author calls Black Pedagogy. In order to avoid dubious interpretations, we have decided to adopt the expression 
Despotic Pedagogy. For more information, see Azevedo, M.A. (1995). Despotic Pedagogy and domestic violence against 
children and adolescents: where psychology and politics meet. In: Azevedo, M.A. & Menin, M.S. dos S. (orgs.). Psicologia e 
Política / Reflexões sobre possibilidades e dificuldades deste encontro. São Paulo: Cortez. 
17 We conscientiously reject both expressions. For further information, see Azevedo, M.A. & Guerra, V.N.A. (1995). Violência 
doméstica na infância e na adolescência. São Paulo: Robe. 
Voices of Youth 
 28 
A repeated pattern of caregiv er behav ior or ex treme incident(s) that conv ey to children that 
they are w orthless, flaw ed, unlov ed, unw anted, endangered, or only of v alue in meeting 
another’s needs. 
Since 1989, Azevedo & Guerra have been discussing in Brazil, the question of 
Domestic Psychological Violence, understood as Psychological Abuse-Victimization 
of Children and Adolescents. Synthetically, the authors reaffirm the same concept in 
a study published in 1998: 
Also designated as psychological torture, it occurs w hen parents or responsible parties 
constantly put the child dow n, blocking its efforts tow ards self acceptance, causing much 
mental suffering. 
The chart which follows provides a panoramic and comparative view of the 
main concepts addressed in specialized literature. 
The conceptual discussion, however, is far from over, although Domestic 
Psychological Violence has been discussed in several documents concerning the 
protection of the Rights of the Child: in England and in Wales it was incorporated by 
the legislation in 1980; in the United States it has been incorporated in the statutes of 
several States since 1977. 
Internationally, The Universal Declaration of the Rights of the Child (11.20.59), 
in its Principle 9, assures the protection of the child against neglect, cruelty and 
exploitation. Also, the Convention on the Rights of the Child (11.20.89), ratified by 
Brazil on 01.26.90, protects the child against all forms of physical or mental violence 
(...). In Brazil, the Statute of the Child and the Adolescent (Law Nº 8069, of July 13, 
1990) declares in its article 5, that no child or adolescent will be the object of any form of 
neglect, discrimination, exploitation, violence, cruelty and oppression (...) [the italics are 
ours]. 
In practice, however, these conceptualizations have proved to be of little use, 
due to the range and ambiguity of behaviors that fall within the framework of 
Domestic Psychological Violence. 
Experts have, therefore, begun to define Domestic Psychological Violence in a 
less generic and a more operational way. This effort has shown itself to be 
theoretically valid, although, equally polemical. 
Voices of Youth 
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CHART 1 
Map of the major conceptions of Domestic Psychological Violence [DPV] / (1976-2001) 
Number Order EMPLOYED TERMINOLOGY CONCEPTUAL FACETS 
OF 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 
REFERENCE 
Emotional Psychological Emotional Psychological Other 
Perpetr ator Par ental Conduct Consequences for the Victim 
Relationship 
with other 
Modalities 
[Physical V. / 
Sexual V.] 
 abuse maltr eatment neglect violence Adults Parents or Carers Sibling Generic Active Passive Typology Suffering Damage 
1 X X X X X X 
2 X X X 
3 X X X X 
4 X X X X X 
5 X X X X 
6 X X X 
7 X X X X 
8 X X X X 
9 X X X 
10 X X X 
11 X X X X 
12 X X X 
13 X X X 
14 X X X X 
15 X X X X 
16 X X X X 
17 X X X X 
18 X X X 
19 X X X X 
20 X X X X 
21 X X X X 
22 X X X X X 
23 X X X X 
24 X X X 
25 X X X X 
26 X X X 
27 X X X 
28 X X X 
29 X X X 
Voices of Youth 
 30 
Number Order EMPLOYED TERMINOLOGY CONCEPTUAL FACETS 
OF 
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL 
REFERENCE 
Emotional Psychological