Violência contra crianças e adolescentes: aspectos relativos aos atendimentos do Hospital de Clínicas de Uberlândia e do Centro de Referência à Inf ância e Adolescência Vitimizada, Uberlândia- MG

Abstract

Violence against children and adolescents reaches alarming levels all around the world, especially in Brazil, where it is a deep public health problem as it causes strong impact on population morbidity and death rate. The main purpose of this study is to distinguish the aspects of violence against children and adolescents, the victims and their aggressors in the town of Uberlandia. Health records of violence cases confirmed against children and adolescents (from 0 to 18 years old) had been carried through in two public institutions, references in the city of Uberlandia: the Hospital de Clínicas de Uberlândia (HCU), in the period of 1996 to 2003, and the Centro de Referência à Infância e Adolescência Vitimizada (CRIAV), from 1993 to 2003. Later the information desired had been collected through forms of collection of data elaborated exclusively for the accomplishment of the research. In the HCU, 663 medical records had been analyzed and 711 cases of violence were registered. In the CRIAV, 1210 adolescents and children had been victimized, totalizing 1389 cases. In the Hospital, they had been 607 (85.4 %) cases of physical violence, most of cases of violence were with male victims (437; 61.5 %) and mainly adolescents (477, 71.9%). In the CRIAV, the usual cases were: physical violence (586; 42.1%) and neglect (583; 42.0 %), there was no great difference between the genders of victims (726; 52.3 % were male) and most of them younger than 12 years old (979; 80.9%). The cases of violence had occurred mainly at home (HCU - 61.4% and CRIAV - 94.2%). The injuries most described in the HCU had been excoriations (191; 28.8%), the wounds cut-contusions (187; 28.2 %) and hematomas (143; 21.6%), in the CRIAV, hematomas (106; 14.4%) and bruises (82; 11.1%). At the Hospital, 98 (14.8%) children or adolescents had been interned and 88 (13.3%) submitted to surgeries, 32 (4.8%) cases had been directed to the Legal Medical Rank and 22 (3.3%) to the Tutorial Council for children and adolescents. The main behaviors in the cases of the CRIAV were family orientation (380; 51.6%) and domiciliary visits (266; 36.1%). The aggressors were victims relatives in the great majority of the cases from CRIAV (911; 94.1%) and about half of medical records where this information had been registered (115; 53.7%). Among these, the mother was the main aggressor at the Reference Center (482; 52.9 %) and the father in the cases at the Hospital (41; 35.7%). At CRIAV, most of the aggressors were between the age of 20 to 40 years old (446; 73.8%), didn t finish elementary education (321; 67.1%) and kept a steady conjugal relationship (484; 50.0%). Considering drugs, 250 (25.8%) aggressors used to drink alcohol and 99 (10.2%) used to take other drugs (99; 10.2%). The conclusions are that the characteristics of the victims and the types of violence vary according to the attendance institution. At the HCU, attendance is motivated mostly due to physical violence and it reaches mainly male adolescents, with injuries that, in many cases, request internments and surgical treatment. The service doesn t include the guiding of the cases to the Tutorial Council. At CRIAV, the main cases are physical violence and neglect that mainly reach children younger than 12, (cases number decrease as the age goes up). The aggressors are between 20 to 40 years old, did not accomplish basic education, half of them are married or live with a partner, 1/4 have alcohol and about 10% take other drugs. At both institutions most cases of violence takes part at home and is perpetrated by victims own parents.