TITLE:
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL: STORIES OF DEATH AND RESISTANCE*
Authors:
Institution:
Address:
Azevedo, M.A.; Guerra, V.N. de A.
Child Studies Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Av. Prof. Mello Morais, 1721 – Cidade Universitária
São Paulo/SP – 05508-900 – BRASIL
Phone (55) (11) 3091-4383
Fax
(55) (11) 3091-4475
e-mail: lacri@usp.br
NO CACTUS IS SO COMPACT THAT CANNOT GIVE WAY TO FLOWERS
*
Paper presented at the 6th European Conference on Traumatic Stress (ESTSS)  Istambul, Turkey, June 05/08, 1999 and
updated to 2003.
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
TITLE: CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL: STORIES OF DEATH AND RESISTANCE*
Authors:
Institution:
Address:
Azevedo, M.A.; Guerra, V.N. de A.
Child Studies Laboratory, Institute of Psychology, University of São Paulo, Brazil
Av. Prof. Mello Morais, 1721 – Cidade Universitária
São Paulo/SP – 05508-900 – BRASIL
Phone (55) (11) 3091-4383
Fax
(55) (11) 3091-4475
e-mail: lacri@sti.com.br
Abstract
This work focuses on two cases of sexual domestic violence and is based on the
Brazilian domestic violence incidence data, which is the visible tip of a big iceberg indicating
many kinds of violence. Both cases had serious although different consequences, as it may be
seen by comparing them:

Nina’s case, a one-year-old girl raped and murdered by her stepfather;

Fabiana’s case, a girl raped by her father when she was 10, but who suffered different
types of sexual violence perpetrated by him since she was 5 until she was 17 years old.
Two girls were born from this relationship, one of them blind, deaf and dumb. Fabiana
denounced her father to the police when he finally tried to rape one of her children.
These two cases have one thing in common: they are cases of domestic terror.
“Domestic terror is conceived as an organized strategy of violence (physical, sexual,
psychological, neglect) that is cumulative, reiterative, unacceptable by general human rules
as violations of the children’s and adolescents’ human rights. The objective of such violence
is to maintain the central and despotic familiar power through frightening practices that
involve torture, cruel treatment, unexpected chastisements, etc.” [Bobbio, N; Matteucci, N;
Pasquino, G., 1986; and WHO, 1991].
This work asks two fundamental questions and tries to answer them:
a.
How can one explain the production of these cases inside the Brazilian society? The
authors analysed documents regarding the women’s private family history, infancy
history and political torture in Brazil (using the History of Mentalities as a parameter).
They demonstrate that domestic terror as a strategy of familiar pedagogy has its roots in
the Culture of Terror, which considers that children, women and political prisoners can
and must be disciplined in the same way in which Indian and black people were
disciplined during the Colonial Brazil period.
b.
How can one explain the diversity of the consequences? Besides carefully analysing
Nina’s and Fabiana’s cases (the latter published a successful autobiographical book), the
authors also investigated the characteristic conditions of the aggressors’ life stories and
the classical connivance of the mothers. It was concluded that a differential factor must
be searched through the resilient self theory [Wolin, S.J. and Wolin, S., 1994], which
explains Fabiana’s case (a survivor not only a victim of domestic terror).
Finally, the work criticises the “defective model” (that views the problem as a disease)
in opposition to the “empowerment model” (that explores the potential skills of the
survivors), which is considered by the authors as politically and psychologically correct.
*
Paper presented at the 6th European Conference on Traumatic Stress (ESTSS)  Istambul, Turkey, June 05/08, 1999 and
updated to 2003.
1
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
Human
Rights
Should first be
exercised in
people’s homes!
2
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
1.0
INTRODUCTION
Brazil has some of the most advanced legislation in the world regarding child and
adolescent protection: the Statute of the Child and Adolescent (Law 8069 – July 13, 1990).
In the light of the doctrine of integral protection of the rights of all children and
adolescents and in consonance with the UN’s Convention on The Rights of the Child, the
Statute decrees in its 5th article:
No child or adolescent shall be object of any kind of neglect,
discrimination, exploitation, violence, cruelty and oppression; any attempt
by action or omission on the child’s or adolescent’s fundamental rights shall
be punished by law.
Almost 10 years have passed since its promulgation and we are forced to recognise that
this legislation has proved impotent to prevent the (re)production of the phenomenon of
domestic violence against children and adolescents. Although we do not have nationwide
statistics, some research data that we have been systematically and cumulatively collecting by
us allow to understand that it is:
a.
an extensive rather than marginal phenomenon in numerical terms, as it could seem at
first sight; it is also virulently democratic;
b.
an endemic phenomenon because it reiterates over the years;
c.
a serious phenomenon because it not only involves many modalities of violence
resulting in variable toxicity for the development of children and adolescents, but also
because it includes authentic cases of domestic terror.
Table 1 – Incidence of Domestic Violence against Children and Adolescents
Brazil 2003: THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG
DVCA
MODALITIES
INCIDENCE
1999 2000
1996
1997
1998
Physical Violence
525
1,240
2,804
2,620
Sexual Violence
95
315
578
Psychological Violence

53
Neglect
572
Fatal Violence
Total
TOTAL
2001
2002
2003
4,330
6,675
5,721
6,497
30,412
649
978
1,723
1,728
2,599
8,665
2,105
893
1,493
3,893
2,685
2,952
14,074
456
7,148
2,512
4,205
7,713
5,798
8,687
37,091




135
257
42
22
456
1,192
2,064
12,635
6,674
11,141
20,261
15,974
20,757
90,698
Source: The Tip of the Iceberg – research LACRI / 2003
3
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
The following remarks are necessary to an adequate understanding of the reach and
limits of the data presented in Table 1:
1.
DOMESTIC VIOLENCE is a concrete reality in the life of many children and adolescents in
Brazil and in the world. To have an idea of the hugeness of the phenomenon, one just
has to analyse the figures of Domestic Violence reported for 1996, 1997, 1998, 1999,
2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003 (for a period of 1 to 3 months of each of these years) in 19
of the 27 Brazilian States. It is important to bear in mind that these figures are far from
representing the total volume of violence suffered at home by Brazilian children and
adolescents: they are only THE TIP OF THE ICEBERG.
2.
By comparing the researched years one observes a substantial increase in the number of
notifications which perhaps indicates that awareness regarding the phenomenon is
increasing;
3.
Neglect, followed by Physical Violence, occupies a prominent position. However, such
data must be carefully considered, since there are no safe grounds to state whether
negligent behaviour of parents towards their children was really detected or that
behaviour is deeply entangled in the intense poverty of our living conditions;
4.
Sexual Violence is certainly underestimated, since the conspiracy of silence which
hovers over Domestic Violence acts more powerfully when violence has a sexual
nature, and is less visible than physical violence or neglect. “The estimated number of
non-notified cases of sexual violence against children is higher than the number
referring to other kinds of violence. To each notified case there are fifty that are not
notified”1.
5.
There are some difficulties concerning the measurement of the phenomenon of
Psychological Violence. In order to grasp it in its entire dimension, we would have to
observe the family and the victim daily. Therefore, its appearance in the statistics may
show that what is being notified is the most critical behaviour in this area. The so-called
“small violence”, “the perverse sweetness” of a child’s daily life in the family that is so
harmful to him/her cannot be observed by the researchers.
6.
Thanks to Tardieu’s pioneering studies in France (1860) and Kempe’s in the United
States (1962), it has been possible to contrast the idyllic representation of the SACRED
FAMILY, HOME as a SAFE PORT and the LOVING PARENTS
WHO
PROTECT THEIR
CHILDREN, with a much crueller reality: that of HOME as a GUNPOWDER BARREL, the
4
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
TOXIC PARENTS and the FAMILY as outstanding in every case of DOMESTIC VIOLENCE
AGAINST CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS.
On the other hand, it is important to consider that although the data presented here
reflect a pale portrait of the Domestic Violence that is perpetrated in our country, they
represent an important advance: they can be used as the basis for the beginning of a
discussion about the actions destined to combat this kind of violence.
2.0
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR
The research we have been carrying out in Brazil for more than ten years2 has shown
that DOMESTIC VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS can assume extreme forms
comparable to Political Terror. We selected two cases of incest as Sexual Violence in the
Family, always practised by the father/stepfather against the daughter(s), with the complicity
(more or less active) of the mother. Also, it is always accompanied by perverse strategies of
physical and psychological violence, as well as neglect. We have named them respectively:
NINA’S CASE
(fictitious name)
and
FABIANA’S CASE
(real name)
and outlined their comparative profiles (Chart 1).
5
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
COMPARATIVE PROFILES OF TWO CASES OF DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
NINA
FABIANA
FACETS
TYPE OF DOMESTIC TERROR
Aggressor
SEXUAL VIOLENCE +
PHYSICAL VIOLENCE + HOMICIDE
Stepfather (mother’s recent partner), male,
unemployed.
[Already wanted for homicide, illicit activities]
SEXUAL VIOLENCE + PHYSICAL VIOLENCE
Biological father, married, male, bricklayer.
Since his adolescence he practised lustful acts against girls
who attended protestant cults with him, using the toilets of the
temples for such activities.
He had been expelled from his parent’s home due to problems
of sexual conduct and verbal aggressions against relatives.
6
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
FACETS
NINA
FABIANA
Family tree:
Family tree:
João
Conceição
46 years old
biological father
Sf
(stepfather)
unemployed
Mother
23 years old
cleaning lady
S
Victim(s)
5 years old
41 years old
biological mother
NINA
1 year and three
months old

X
abortion
Fátima
6 years old
(*)
Fabiana
19 years old
(*)
Graziela
3 years old
Ester
18 years old
(*)
Sabrina
does not live
with the family
Andressa
9 months old
Andréia
16 years old
(*)
Remarks:
a. All names
but
Fabiana’s
are
fictitious.
b. The ages
refer to
1996.
Dolores
21 years old
(*)
(*) Victims of incest
Dolores: Fabiana’s biological sister on the mother’s side: practice of
lustful acts between the ages of 4 and 7. Between the ages of 7 and
19: anal + vaginal + oral sexual relations.
Fabiana: between the ages of 5 and 10: practice of lustful acts.
Between the ages of 10 and 17: anal and vaginal sexual relations. At
the age of 13 she gave birth to her first daughter with her biological
father. At the age of 15 she gave birth to her second daughter with
her biological father. The child was born blind, deaf and dumb.
Two of Fabiana’s biological sisters:
Ester: between the ages of 10 and 14: anal + vaginal relations.
Sabrina: between the ages of 10 and 13: anal + vaginal relations.
Fabiana’s first daughter with her biological father (Fátima): at the age
of 3, attempt to practise lustful acts.
7
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
NINA
FABIANA
Absent from home when the death occurred,
since she was working as a cleaning lady at a
hospital.
She lived with her parents until she was 11. She was frequently
beaten by her own mother with sticks. From then on she got jobs at
family houses where she was submitted to slavery regimes from the
work standpoint. At the age of 18 she got pregnant and assumed the
child alone.
Precarious. The mother brought the partner
home approximately one month before the
crime.
Stable. A short period after becoming a single mother she met the
aggressor and dated him during one week. She was threatened with
death by him if they did not live together. In 1976 she married him in
a civil ceremony.
a. Ear-pullings
a. Electric shock
When Fabiana told her mother that her father had raped her
sister, the father denied it and gave her an electric shock: he left
her naked inside a can and connected her to unprotected electric
wires.
b. Ferule
He beat her hands with the ferule and the hands swelled and
showed bloodstains.
c. Attempted hanging
d. Suspending upside down
e. Denying nourishment
f. Providing food without cutlery and in rusty cans
g. Locking in dark rooms
h. Beatings on the head with a scantling
i. Violent beatings
j. Giving unnecessary medicines to create dependency
k. Violent rape at the age of 10
FACETS
Mother
Conjugal bond
Torture Modes and
Instruments used against
the victim
b. Blows
c. Bites
d. Sucks
8
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
FACETS
Voices from captivity
NINA
FABIANA
Cruel death: the victim drank cognac, vomited,
was ill treated (bites, sucks) and was probably
beaten.
MY FATHER HAD CONVERTED ME INTO HIS PRISONER
She presented abrasions in the perioral region
and in the left vaginal labium minus.
a. The chronic fear:
“I obeyed my father because I knew that if I disobeyed him I
would get the worst part of it”.
“... my father threatened to cut my throat. I got scared and
obeyed”.
“He threatened to make my younger sister pregnant. Then I gave
in”.
b. The culture of suffering:
“The years went by and no matter how hard I wanted to keep
pace, I never could, because my life had no room for that...
Nothing I did made sense... I couldn’t even open my mouth to
defend myself anymore”.
c. The isolation:
“... as usual, our father took us out of school”.
“... my father beat me a lot because he wanted to prevent me
from talking to my sisters”.
“... we were prevented from getting out of the house, because he
was afraid that we would tell our story to our neighbours”.
“I couldn’t even say good-bye to the boy I fancied. We moved to
another house so that I couldn’t see him anymore and when my
father heard about his existence, he beat me and prohibited me
from leaving the house”.
9
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
FACETS
NINA
FABIANA
MY FATHER HAD CONVERTED ME INTO HIS PRISONER
d. The sexual humiliation:
Voices from captivity
“... he made me and my sister touch or kiss each other like
lesbians. We were very disgusted, but we submitted ourselves to
his wants because we were afraid of being beaten”.
“When I was face to face with my father  face to face with a
monster  he took off all my clothes and then threw me onto the
bed, asking my sister to hold my legs...”
e. The unpredictable physical violence:
“My father was an unpredictable man: one couldn’t tell when he
was good and when he was bad...”
The planning of the actions:
“To do it in the way he did. He thought a lot
about it... To do what he did to her and spend
the whole night with the dead girl at home. He
must have planned everything that he was going
to do...”
[In: The mother’s testimony published in:
Azevedo, M.A. and Guerra, V.N.A. Infância e
Violência Fatal em Família — Primeiras
aproximações ao nível de Brasil (Childhood and
Fatal Violence in the Family  First considerations
from Brazil). São Paulo: Iglu, 1998]
f. The planning of the actions connected with the first rape:
“My father gave money to my mother for her to travel away…
Then he violently raped my big sister for the first time… Later he
did the same to me…”
g. The desire for obscurity:
“I didn’t want to make myself pretty anymore. I was afraid that the
way I dressed could attract my father. I preferred to stay
motionless in a corner of the house so as not to do anything that
could attract him”.
h. Calling up the images of the beloved ones:
“When I was alone in the hospital to give birth to my father’s
daughter, I used to put the photograph of the boy I loved on my
belly...”
10
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
FACETS
NINA
FABIANA
MY FATHER HAD CONVERTED ME INTO HIS PRISONER
i. The feeling of depression:
Voices from captivity
“When my daughter was two months old I felt that life didn’t make
sense anymore. I stopped caring about her, I didn’t bathe
anymore... My father could beat me as much as he wanted but I
didn’t get out of bed: I was a living-dead...”
j. The feeling of indifference:
“... I came to know that my father was harassing my younger
sister. I was so angry with life that I stopped worrying about it... I
left her on her own”.
k. The seduction of death:
“I felt that I didn’t need to live any longer. Everything to me had
turned into a big emptiness. I felt useless every moment that I
lived...”
“One day, as I couldn’t bear so much suffering any longer, I
decided to commit suicide...”
l. The mobilization of the protection capacity:
“My father started to try to abuse my older daughter when she was
three years old. Then I said to him: it doesn’t matter if you beat
me till I die, I’ll never let you touch her. You did what you did to
us because we didn’t have a mother to defend us. But my daughter
has a mother and as long as I live, you’ll never touch her”.
[In: Andrade, Fabiana Pereira. Labirintos do Incesto: o relato de
uma sobrevivente (Mazes of Incest: the story of a survivor). São
Paulo: Escrituras/LACRI, 1999, 2nd edition]
11
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
FACETS
Triggering factor
NINA
FABIANA
Cognac, marijuana (taken by the aggressor). He
gave cognac to the victim.
The aggressor alleged in Court that he did not drink, did not smoke
and did not take drugs.
“I could only explain his aggressive appearance and behaviour by the
use of drugs. He himself used to tell us how someone who takes
drugs acts”.
[In: Andrade, Fabiana Pereira. Idem, Ibid.]
The silent accomplices
The mother who, although suspicious, refused to
believe in the alarming signs inscribed in the
child’s words, cries, fear and in the aggressor’s
erotic behaviour.
“He hit her buttocks with his foot and said: she is
so pretty without her panties... with her panties...
But not even then did I realise something was
wrong...”
“A few days before she died, I got home and saw
that her ear was hurt... I asked what had
happened. He said that she had pooed in her
panties and that he had taken her out of bed by
the ear. But then I saw that there were no dirty
clothes of hers in the house...”
“Since the first day she saw him she cried, she
didn’t like him and didn’t want to stay with him...”
12
The mother knew about everything that happened in the house.
Many times she was watching television in her room when the father
practised sexual violence against her daughters. Many times Fabiana
asked for her help but did not receive any.
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
FACETS
The silent accomplices
NINA
FABIANA
“When I got home from work, the first thing I
used to do was to change her clothes to see
whether he had touched her...”
“One day I went out to buy some fish and I left
her at home. When I came back, her face was
swollen. He told me that she had fallen from the
bed... I think that he had beaten her because she
was used to getting in and out of bed and she
couldn’t simply have fallen down”.
“She didn’t say anything, but I think that when I
wasn’t around, he abused her. Because she was
afraid of him!”
“When he was at home, her behaviour
changed...”
[In: Azevedo, M.A. and Guerra, V.N.A. Infância
e Violência Fatal em Família  Primeiras
aproximações ao nível de Brasil (Childhood and
Fatal Violence in the Family  First
considerations from Brazil). São Paulo: Iglu,
1998]
13
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
CASES
FACETS
Conviction
NINA
FABIANA
Aggressor denies having committed the crime
and runs away after threatening the mother in
case she denounced him.
Aggressor: He claims that the victims looked for him sexually,
stimulated by his wife. Convicted to 55 years of imprisonment
(Maximum Security Prison).
This did not happen because the case did not
go to trial (the defendant ran away)
Psychiatric report:
Diagnosis: Personality disturbance. Serious neurotic disorders.
Prognosis: closed
Mother convicted to 36 years and 8 months of imprisonment
(Judiciary Madhouse).
Psychiatric report:
Diagnosis: Oligophrenia. Neurotic disorders.
14
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
2.1
WHAT IS IT ALL ABOUT?
Saying that both of them are cases of father-daughter (under 18) incest and therefore,
cases of Domestic Sexual Violence3 is to say little when one considers all that the victims
went through. Saying that Nina’s case is a case of Fatal Domestic Violence4 and that
Fabiana’s case is a case of Cross-generational Sexual Violence (fatherdaughters /
grandfather–granddaughter) is still saying little, when one considers the practices –
extremely terrifying – and the brutal consequences (death in Nina’s case and two daughters
of her own father, one of them blind, deaf and dumb, in Fabiana’s case).
What the two cases have in common and what best characterises them is that both are
cases of DOMESTIC TERROR. As an extreme modality of domestic violence against children
and adolescents, it is possible to conceive of DOMESTIC TERROR as an organized strategy of
violence (physical, sexual, psychological, neglect) that is cumulative, reiterative, unacceptable
by general human rules as violations of the children’s and adolescents’ human rights. The
objective of such violence is to maintain the central and despotic familiar power through
frightening practices that involve torture, cruel treatment, unexpected chastisements, etc.
This conceptualisation must be considered as provisional, for it happens that all the
bibliographic surveys we have carried out at the national and international levels5 did not
include the construct DOMESTIC TERROR. However, we consider it an important category to be
identified and researched. Among other possible ramifications, this construct will allow the
establishment of a more adequate parallel between POLITICAL TERROR and DOMESTIC
TERROR, perhaps considering them as extreme modalities of despotic violence (more basic
and structural) and, as such, serious violations of human rights. It was with this intention that
we tried to base the conception of DOMESTIC TERROR on Bibliographic Research about the
thematics of Terror6.
The epistemological dimensions identified in this research may show better the
atmosphere of Domestic Terror in which victims like Nina and Fabiana end up being
involved by their parents and the extent to which this atmosphere is also characteristic of
Political Terror.
3.0
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR  STORIES OF DEATH AND RESISTANCE
Besides the possibility of being characterised as occurrences of DOMESTIC TERROR in
their interface with POLITICAL TERROR, Nina’s and Fabiana’s cases differentiate from one
15
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
another due to their consequences. While Nina’s case is a story of death in the family,
Fabiana’s case is a story of resistance to the family.
Nina died because:
1st:
no one was capable of reading the danger signals inscribed in her daily life in the family
after her mother brought her partner home;
2nd: who else could protect her? Her mother proved incapable of doing so: the analysis of
her discourse showed a reiterative practice of DANGEROUS SUPERVISION, a modality that
is characteristic of neglect7;
3rd: Nina was too young and too defenceless to face practically alone8 the likely torture
session that ended up killing her.
Fabiana, in turn, was able to survive mainly because she, unlike the majority of her
sisters, could construct a personality strong enough to bear violence without turning into its
hostage. Since Fabiana fought to survive her father’s violence, either by denouncing him
everytime9, or by looking for external alliances10, or by assuming the maternal care of her two
daughters11, or finally by writing her own autobiography, which she defined as a scream of
alert12, she was able to demonstrate an exceptional “capacity to rise above adversity by
developing skills [named] resiliences, that are seven:
1. INSIGHT: The habit of asking tough questions and giving honest answers.
2. INDEPENDENCE: drawing boundaries between yourself and troubled
parents; keeping emotional and physical distance while satisfying the
demands of your conscience.
3. RELATIONSHIPS: intimate and fulfilling ties to other people that balance
a mature regard for your own needs with empathy and the capacity to
give to someone else.
4. INITIATIVE: taking charge of problems; exerting control; a taste for
stretching and testing yourself in demanding tasks.
5. CREATIVITY: imposing order, beauty, and purpose on the chaos of your
troubling experiences and painful feelings.
6. HUMOR: finding the comic in the tragic.
7. MORALITY: an informed conscience that extends your wish for a good
personal life to all of humankind”13.
16
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
Fabiana was able to survive thanks to the development of a resilient self. This process is
not concluded and is far from being peaceful:
“For the majority ... [of survivors] resilience and vulnerability are in steady
opposition; one holding...up and the other threatening to pull...down. The
inner life of the typical survivor is a battleground where the forces of
discouragement and the forces of determination constantly clash. For many
determination wins out”13.
And this was Fabiana’s case. However, “resilience tends to cluster by personality type.
A survivor who is outgoing and gregarious for example, will have a different array of
resiliences from one who is serious and introspective”13.
The mandala reproduced below shows which array of resiliences may be considered as
typical of Fabiana. This array is characteristic of her, as a personality whose mark has always
been rebellion.
17
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
“I couldn’t understand how my father
could do so many evil things to us
without at least feeling some remorse.
At the age of 12 I couldn’t bear looking
at his face. I felt rage, anger, hate,
nausea”.
“Do you think I wanted to have you as
my parents? I’m ashamed of being your
daughter!”
“I felt revolted for having to pay for a
mistake I hadn’t made”.
“As time went by I started to think that I
would never shut up my mouth again, no
matter what happened. I started to say
everything that was true whenever my
father was going to beat us... Whenever
my father asked me to respect him, I told
him that he should be a respectable
person in the first place”.
“To the victims I’d like to say that it’s
always time to begin a new life. Only
your head can change who you are.
Don’t let people do what they want with
you. Show them you are stronger”.
MANDALA
SELF
(I)
“I try to make
drawings
whenever I can”.
RESILIENCE
“...I strove to make my daughter happy...
She was the only person that could make
me smile”.
“ I feel happy as I write this book: this is a
way to overcome the past”.
“When I read a magazine I always try to
read the jokes section.”
“Today I can look around me and say I
defeated my past. I already feel stronger
than I felt before. I can already defend
myself against a few people who still
criticise me. I don’t get offended anymore
by what those who speak ill of me say.
I’ve learned to listen more and speak
less”.
“Today I have a job and I feel proud to be
able to buy stuff to my daughters and
nieces, without having to beg from
anyone. I’m studying and learning
informatics. I feel good because I know
that with my efforts I’m reconstructing my
life and my daughters’ life”.
* more prominent dimensions
Adapted from:
Source: Wolin, J.S. and Wolin, S. The resilient self: how survivors of troubled families rise above adversity,
NY, Villard Books, 1994, p.3.
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CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
By revisiting Fabiana’s story and comparing it to Nina’s we are led to conclude that
although not all children and adolescents are able to survive domestic violence, “many
survivors are the desert flowers that grow healthy and strong in an emotional wasteland. In
barren and angry terrain, they find nourishment and frequently their will to prevail becomes
the foundation for a decent caring and productive adult life”13.
Fabiana is one of these survivors: a cactus flower, since this plant, although growing in
a semi-barren terrain is always able to blossom.
4.0
THE QUESTION THAT HANGS IN THE AIR: HOW CAN ONE EXPLAIN THE (RE)PRODUCTION OF
CASES LIKE NINA’S AND FABIANA’S IN BRAZILIAN SOCIETY?
Domestic terror as a strategy of family pedagogy has its roots in the CULTURE
OF
TERROR, which considers that children, women and political prisoners can and must be
disciplined in the same way Indian and black people were disciplined during the colonial
period in Brazil14.
Towards the end of the century and the millenium, the Culture of Terror continues to be
more alive than ever, especially at the Brazilian family level. That is the reason why, although
we have some of the most advanced legislation to protect children and adolescents, the
Eduardo Galeano’s warning continues to be true to Brazil:
Terror Culture
Eduardo Galeano
The extortion, the insults, the threats, the rap on the head, the slap, the
spanking, the whip, the dark room, the cold shower, the obligatory fast, the
obligatory food, the prohibition to go out, the prohibition to speak one’s mind,
the prohibition to do what one feels like, and public humiliation...
are some of the methods of penitence and torture that are traditions in
the life of the family. As a punishment for disobedience and an example of
liberty, family tradition perpetrates the culture of terror which humiliates the
woman, teaches the children to lie and contaminates everything with the
plague of fear.
Human rights should begin at home!  Andrés Domínguez comments with
me in Chile.
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CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
5.0
NOTES AND BIBLIOGRAPHIC REFERENCES
1.
Miller, A. Banished Knowledge. New York: Doubleday, 1990.
2.
The main research works carried out and published by LACRI were the following:
AZEVEDO, M.A.; GUERRA, V.N.A. (2001). Hitting mania: domestic corporal punishment of children and
adolescents in Brazil. São Paulo/Sweden: Iglu and Save the Children.
AZEVEDO, M.A.; GUERRA, V.N.A. (orgs.) (2000). Children and domestic violence: frontiers of
knowledge. 3rd ed. São Paulo: Cortez.
AZEVEDO, M.A.; GUERRA, V.N.A. (orgs.) (1998). Infancy and fatal violence in the family: first
considerations at Brazil level. São Paulo: Iglu.
AZEVEDO, M.A.; GUERRA, V.N.A. (1995). Child abuse of children and adolescents. São Paulo: Robe.
AZEVEDO, M.A.; GUERRA, V.N.A. (1995). Children and domestic violence. The “want to know all” 
what the professionals want to know. São Paulo: LACRI.
AZEVEDO, M.A.; MENIN, M.S.S. (1995). Psychology and politics. São Paulo: Cortez/FAPESP.
AZEVEDO, M.A. (1991). Father-daughter incest: a smaller taboo in a smaller Brazil. São Paulo: IPUSP.
[Full Professor Thesis, 331p.]
AZEVEDO, M.A.; GUERRA, V.N.A. (orgs.) (1989). Victimized children: the small power syndrome. São
Paulo: Iglu.
AZEVEDO, M.A.; GUERRA, V.N.A. (1988). Ass skin is not only a story... a study on the domestic sexual
abuse of children and adolescents. São Paulo: Roca.
GUERRA, V.N.A. (2001). Parental violence against their children: the tragedy revisited. 4th ed. São Paulo:
Cortez.
GUERRA, V.N.A. (1984/1985). Parental violence against their children: victims wanted. São Paulo:
Cortez.
3.
Domestic Sexual Violence against Children and Adolescents:
“Every act or sexual game, heterosexual or homosexual relation between one or more adults who have
with the child or adolescent a relationship of consanguinity, affinity and/or mere responsibility, with the
purpose of sexually stimulating the child or using the child to obtain sexual stimulation for himself or for
another person”. [Azevedo, M.A.; Guerra, V.N.A. Infância e Violência Fatal em Família: primeiras
aproximações ao nível de Brasil (Childhood and Fatal Violence in the Family: first considerations from
Brazil). São Paulo: Iglu, 1998, p.177].
4.
Fatal Domestic Violence against Children and Adolescents:
“Acts and/or omissions practised by parents, relatives or guardians towards children and/or adolescents
that  being capable of causing them physical, sexual and/or psychological injury – can be considered as
conditioning factors (solely or combined with other factors) of their death”. [Azevedo, M.A.; Guerra,
V.N.A. Idem, Ibid.]
It can be observed that this definition permits that the children and/or adolescents are seen as victims and
not as guilty/defendants of this kind of violence. Also, the responsibility for violence is kept in the family
(parents or guardians). Responsibility of a PROTECTIVE nature  since the victims were beings under a
process of physical and psychological development and therefore, had the right to receive special care and
supervision capable of guaranteeing  at least  their very lives. In turn, this responsibility cannot be
disguised nor expropriated through recourse to beautiful lies of pseudo-explanations. It must be clarified,
however, that the Brazilian statistics do not use the term Fatal Domestic Violence as we have detailed it
here. From the statistical point of view, this phenomenon falls (disguised) under the category “domestic
accidents” or else “deaths by violent causes”. Therefore, the Brazilian scientific literature seems to
consider children’s and adolescents’ death in the family as a “marginal phenomenon”, and does not
recognise its specificity neither in its production nor in its reproduction. When discussed, it is allocated to
statistics about Social Violence (usually urban) and/or about Violence Inter Social Classes, with no
concern for the fact that it is a phenomenon whose SOCIOGENESIS rests on the INTRA SOCIAL CLASSES
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CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
relationships, in which adults and children participate as families.
5.
6.
The bibliographic surveys that were carried out were the following:
5.1
At the national level
Azevedo, M.A. and Guerra, V. N.A. Infância e Violência Doméstica / Bibliografia Seletiva
Nacional. (Childhood and Domestic Violence – Selected National Bibliography). São Paulo:
LACRI/IPUSP, 1997. It presents scientific publications in the field covering 97 years of the 20 th
century.
5.2
At the international level
a. Bibliography on children’s and adolescents’ deaths in the family, covering the period between
1986 and 1997. 130 scientific texts were collected (articles/communications in Congresses).
Their analysis can be found in Azevedo, M.A. and Guerra, V.N.A. Infância e Violência Fatal
em Família: primeiras aproximações ao nível de Brasil (Childhood and Fatal Violence in the
Family: first considerations from Brazil). São Paulo: Iglu, 1998, p.46-56.
b. Kalichman, S.C. and Gary, A.T. (eds.) Bibliographies in Psychology, number 9, Washington,
American Psychological Association, 1996. Covering the period 1990 – 1995, the volume
brings abstracts from 3,840 publications on Child Abuse / Psychological and Behavioral
Literature, including articles from scientific journals, dissertations and selected references to
books/book chapters.
The research on Terror was carried out based on the following main axes:
A. Terror.
B. Political Terror.
C. Domestic Terror.
D. Culture of Terror.
Carried out through consultations to the main bibliographic networks accessible through the University of
São Paulo (USP) and the Catholic University of São Paulo (PUC/SP), the research collected texts excerpted
from books, scientific journals, dissertations and newspapers covering the period 1956-1998, published in
the areas of Human Sciences (social and political), Psychology, Theatre, Literature and Law. 57 scientific
and artistic texts were collected.
7.
“Supervision, as the name indicates, means an amplified look, suggesting, in the domain of the parentchild relations, the necessary protective tasks of accompaniment, control, verification of the children’s
activities, as well as all the indispensable care aiming at anticipating and neutralising likely physical,
moral or psychological injuries to the child’s and adolescent’s development... Dangerous supervision is
that which does not comply with its protective function (often with fatal consequences to the victims)”.
[Azevedo, M.A. and Guerra, V.N.A. Infância e Violência Fatal em Família: primeiras aproximações ao
nível de Brasil (Childhood and Fatal Violence in the Family: first considerations from Brazil). São Paulo:
Iglu, 1998, p.187].
8.
The only witness to Nina’s death was her 5-year-old little brother!
9.
Throughout 12 years of sexual abuse perpetrated by her father, Fabiana denounced the fact to neighbours,
doctors, teachers, boyfriend, etc.
10.
Fabiana always looked for external alliances (professional and extra-professional alliances).
11.
When Fabiana assumed the maternal care of her two daughters, she also assumed the position of head of
the family (financially and emotionally). Her daily routine begins at 5 a.m. and ends at midnight.
12.
The autobiographical book – Labirintos do Incesto / O relato de uma sobrevivente (Mazes of Incest / The
story of a survivor) – was written and typed by her between October and December 1996. Revised by
Lacri and published in 1998 [2nd edition in 1999], it is one of a kind in Brazil. Fabiana has accepted
invitations from the press to promote it at the national level.
13.
Wolin, S. and Wolin, Sybil – The resilient self: how survivors of troubled families rise above adversity.
New York: Villard Books, 1994, p.5-6.
14.
We should bear in mind that the FERULE, a traditional instrument for corporal punishment of Brazilian
children, also “accompanied the slave during his whole existence... The 19 th century iconography reveals
21
CHILDHOOD AND DOMESTIC TERROR IN BRAZIL
the slaves’ familiarity with that artefact: Debret’s 29 th painting represents a shoe store, in which a
Portuguese artisan strikes the hand of one of his slaves with the ferule. Rugendas also presents a scene in
which the slave is portrayed being punished with the ferule. The traveller Friedrich Weech, once, had the
opportunity to observe a Mistress of slaves striking her slave approximately 50 times with the ferule, and
also whipping a girl whose hands were already so swollen that she had asked the Mistress not to punish
her with the ferule anymore”. [Neves, Mª de Fatima Rodrigues das. Infância de faces negras: a criança
escrava brasileira no século XIX (Black childhood: the Brazilian slave child in the 19 th century) Masters
thesis presented to the Department of History of the School of Philosophy, Letters and Human Sciences
of the University of São Paulo, 1993, p.206].
6.0
SUPPORTING BIBLIOGRAPHY
1.
Archdiocese of São Paulo. Brasil: nunca mais (Brazil: never again). Petrópolis: Vozes, 1985.
2.
Herman, Judith Lewis. Trauma and recovery: from domestic abuse to political terror. London: Pandora,
1994.
3.
Caniato, Angela Mª Pires. A História negada – Violência e Cidadania sob um enfoque psicopolítico
(History denied – Violence and Citizenship under a psycho-political focus) – Doctorate Dissertation –
Institute of Psychology of the University of São Paulo, 1995.
22