Da Adversidade À Ofensa: Experiências Adversas na Infância e o Papel Mediador das Concepções de Masculinidades em Jovens Ofensores

Abstract

This doctoral dissertation investigated the relationship between Adverse Childhood Experiences and the outcomes of sexual and non-sexual offenses among youth who committed infractions, verifying whether masculinity conceptions function as a mediating variable. A multi-method study was conducted with 156 youths (N=156) from Belém/PA, divided into three groups: sexual offenders, non-sexual offenders, and a community comparison group. Data collection utilized the ACE-IQ Test questionnaire, the Masculinity Conceptions Scale (ECM), and semi-structured interviews. Data analysis integrated correlation models, correspondence analysis, multinomial logistic regression (Studies I and II), and statistical mediation via bootstrapping (Study III), combined with lexical analysis through Descending Hierarchical Classification (DHC) and Similitude Analysis (Study III) using the Iramuteq software. Regarding the results, Study I identified that non-sexual offenders present high ACE-Scores (>7), which are associated with contexts of collective violence and incarcerated family members, whereas sexual offenders display a higher history of emotional and domestic abuse. Study II demonstrated that heterosexism and emotional restriction differentiate the groups, with offenders showing high adherence to rigid masculinity norms compared to the community group. Finally, Study III confirmed that heterosexism acts as a critical mediating variable, explaining 45.7% of the relationship between emotional neglect and general offending behavior. The cross-cutting qualitative analysis confirmed that the term "Man" anchors expectations of courage and the inhibition of emotional vulnerability, functioning as a device for social validation grounded in homosociality. In light of the PPCT model, the findings suggest that secure primary dyads featuring a Responsible Third Party, lower emotional reactivity, supervised ecological transitions, and gender flexibility function as protective factors that inhibit offending trajectories even within high-risk contexts. It is concluded that juvenile offending must be understood as a bioecological phenomenon produced at the intersection of trajectories marked by adversity, social contexts, and gender socialization processes. The results move away from deterministic perspectives, indicating that the prevention of juvenile offending requires interventions aimed at transforming developmental contextual conditions and constructing conceptions of masculinities less associated with violence, thereby capable of interrupting trajectories marked by the reproduction of suffering and aggression.