Violence against children and adolescents: an analysis of four years of complaints filed at the Child Protection Agency in Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo State, Brazil

Children and adolescents are exposed to numerous situations of violence. The objective of the current study was to describe such situations qualitatively and quantitatively, based on data from the Child Protection Agency in Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo State, Brazil, for the years 2000 to 2003, aiming to discuss the classification of complaints filed at the agency according to a conceptual framework for violent acts committed against children and adolescents that highlights the structural, criminal, and domestic forms. The study began by tabulating the complaints, organizing them according to the categories used by the agency itself. The complaints were then regrouped by type of violence. From the total of 7,272 complaints analyzed, 43.4% were classified as structural violence and 44.1% as domestic. Other categories emerged, but were more difficult to separate, demonstrating explicitly how the forms of violence are interwoven, thus corroborating the idea that the determinants are both macro and micro-social and are sometimes expressed within interpersonal relations.