The Punitive and Abandonment journey of young women in the Juvenile Justice System: Pikena’s case

Abstract

This article is research’s result regarding young women in the juvenile justice system in Distrito Federal. The study tells the story of Pikena, a girl who represents a common universe in the juvenile justice system: social protection’s violations and inequalities experience of young women, exposing them to the criminal context and violence. The Brazilian law forecasts full protection for children and teenagers, but is unable to guarantee it throughout the juvenile justice system. These girls were abandoned by the welfare state, responsible for their protection, and started to be controlled by the penal state, primarily responsible for punishment. Through documents, ethnographic research and interviews, Pikena was accompanied during her time in the juvenile justice system and after her liberation. Her story reveals the juvenile justice system as part of a vicious cycle of lack of protection that makes the young women lives precarious and keeps them on a punitive agenda.