Reports of domestic, sexual and other forms of violence against children in Brazil

The scope of this article is to outline the scenario of domestic, sexual and other forms of violence against children (0-9 years old) in Brazil for the year 2010. It is based on data from reports of domestic, sexual and other forms of violence registered with SINAN - formation System for Notifiable Diseases (Continuous VIVA). Absolute and relative numbers are presented, derived from reported violence, discriminating between children under 1 year of age and those between 1-9 years old, due to the specificities that exist in these age groups. Throughout the country, the number of reports among those under 10 years of age is low (17.1%). Differences were found for the distribution of reports in the different Brazilian States. Few municipalities and few services reported violence to SINAN-Net in 2010 in the country. Some differences were found between children under 1 year of age and those between 1 and 9 years of age, as for instance the relationship between the profile of the violence, the victim and the perpetrator, and the handling of the case. The quality of the reported information is discussed showing the high level of unreported data in some spaces of the reporting form. Lack of information may prejudice comprehension of the phenomenon, interfering with the planning, organization and operation actions of the health services in the country.