Trinta anos do estatuto da criança e do adolescente (ECA): uma análise discursiva acerca da eficácia da medida socioeducativa de internação.

Abstract

The Statute of Child and Adolescent (“ECA”) was promulgated three decades ago with the important mission of revolutionizing the treatment of children and adolescents up to then treated by the State as nothing but objects. In fact, the ECA has broken several paradigms, among them the overcoming of the Doctrine of the Irregular Situation that segregated those children and adolescents who were in a state of vulnerability or who had come into conflict with the law. The Statute was a hallmark in terms of protecting the rights of these individuals under the national legal system which introduced the Doctrine of Integral Protection, which transformed the called “minors” into right holders who deserved special protection. Despite this, even after thirty years of existence, the ECA has not yet managed to consolidate many of its provisions, especially when it comes to socio-educational measures, among which is the measure of hospitalization. This measure is applied to the adolescent who commits an offense of a serious nature and has always been the target of a lot of criticisms for being considered incapable of achieving its purpose of re-socializing the offending adolescent. In this terms, as a way of analyzing if the measure is really effective as provided by the ECA and the National SocioEducational Service System, the present research was elaborated using the deductive and qualitative method of the currently existing bibliographic literature, as well as a survey of data on the recurrence of adolescents who fulfilled the measure. In the end, the conclusion was reached that the measure is ineffective in the resocialization process, not because of the way it is provided for in the law, but because of the way in which the absence of support after its fulfillment is applied in practice, which constitutes a joint failure of the State, the family and society, entities that constitutionally have a duty to promote the protection of children and adolescents.