Abstract

BALAGUER, Gabriela. Violence and adolescence: an experience with adolescents in custody at FEBEM. Imaginario [online]. 2005, vol.11, n.11, pp. 91-109. ISSN 1413-666X.

This article intends to present an experience with some adolescents who have committed felonies, and for that reason, they were sent to a juvenile detention center called Foundation for the Well-Being of Minors (FEBEM) in São Paulo. Based on Freud’s concepts, it is intended to think of violent experiences, considering the relation, mainly, between the State violence and the one provoked by the adolescents. In this way, it is necessary to recognize the specific aspects of the adolescents in custody at FEBEM, concerning not only the way of living the adolescence but also the way of how they experience the privation of fundamental rights. Then, it can be concluded that the violence committed by these adolescents is the answer to the State and society violence. Despite the adolescents’ reporting presents different ways of relating themselves to violent experience, we have to worry about avoiding new conditions of violence and, in the same time, take care of those who have got through this situation.

Keywords : Adolescence; Violence; FEBEM.