Entre mães, encontros e afetos: adolescentes condenados como infratores em Petrópolis-RJ

Abstract

This thesis explores the experiences of women, specifically mothers of adolescents serving socio-educational measures, convicted as offenders in the municipality of Petrópolis, RJ, focusing on their condition as Black women whose lives unfold within contexts of violence and social precariousness. The research takes place at the Socio-Educational Measures Service (SEMESE) of the Specialized Social Assistance Reference Center (CREAS) and employs group meetings and a field journal as its primary methods. It critically examines the relationship established with women’s bodies, which are treated as instruments of governance and control, particularly shaped and subordinated by markers of race, class, and gender—the core of intersectionality. The oppressions experienced by these mothers intersect, amplifying the violence they endure daily. The research reveals how the control over women’s lives and bodies is part of a structure that defines their roles within a logic that perceives them as tools to maintain family and societal stability, a dynamic that is even more pronounced in the case of Black women. The study problematizes the punitive logic underpinning the socio-educational system and its relationship with the mothers of offenders, highlighting how practices of criminalization are marked by racism, which transforming black and marginalized adolescents into "social enemies." At the same time, the research emphasizes the transformative power of affection as a tool to create new modes of subjectivity and potential forms of agency, presenting accounts of encounters among adolescents, mothers, and CREAS professionals as spaces for transformation. It provides an overview of prisons and the socio-educational system, as well as the impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic on these spaces and the processes of complying with socio-educational measures, given that this thesis spans the pandemic period beginning in 2020. An important element is the examination of the impacts of neoliberalism on the maintenance of a punitive system and the trend of addressing social conflicts through penal perspectives. Among the scenarios studied, the "war on drugs" emerges as a critical strategy for incarcerating poor and black adolescents. Drawing on the concepts of biopolitics, as proposed by Foucault, and necropolitics, as developed by Mbembe, the research addresses the dynamics of control that structure the relationships between the State, marginalized youth, and their families, culminating in the death and extermination of Black and poor individuals. By integrating theoretical reflections and practical experiences, the research proposes alternatives to the punitive system, aligning with the vision of penal abolitionism and perspectives that imagine possible alternative worlds.