Towards violence: developing children within armed contexts

From a sociocultural constructivist perspective, this paper analyses the sociocultural processes involved in children's participation in criminal organizations in Rio de Janeiro, and in other violent and armed environments. The analysis is based on the work of Dowdney (2003, 2005), and the work of the Slum Monitoring Center (Observatorio de Favelas, 2006). The article discusses the concept of childhood, and identifies the major factors affecting child development within such contexts: the strategies used by adults to induct children into a criminal organization and to keep them there. It highlights the role of school and work, two environments universally present in the research participants' own narratives. To study the topic demands a systematic approach so as to account for the variety of factors at work, from the historico-social forces revealed in the social practices and the collective culture of gangs, to issues such as autonomy and social responsibility. The paper stresses the need to create collective spaces for expressing and co-constructing meanings, which may encourage social and personal reflection, and so promote healthy developmental contexts for both the individual and society.