Adultos e adolescentes autores de agressão sexual: características biopsicossociais e suas percepções sobre infância, adolescência e violência

Abstract

Sexual violence encompasses all societies, and manifests itself in different ways in their different contexts. This phenomenon is present throughout the life trajectory of many children and adolescents, whether as victims or perpetrators of sexual aggression. With the purpose of investigating this phenomenon, this dissertation presents a research with an empirical-descriptive design and quantitative-qualitative data analysis. The research sought to investigate the perceptions of adults (+ 18 years old) and adolescents (12 to 18 years old) perpetrators of sexual aggression against children and adolescents about childhood, adolescence and sexual violence, relating them to the biopsychosocial characteristics that define the two age groups involved in the research. Therefore, two studies with similar methodological characteristics were carried out, thematically interconnected, but with individuals from two different age groups. Study I sought to investigate the relationship between perceptions of adult perpetrators of sexual assault against children and adolescents about childhood, adolescence and sexual violence and the biopsychosocial characteristics of this age group (+ 18 years), which includes men sentenced for crimes of sexual violence in units prisons. Ten (N=10) interviews conducted and transcribed between 2015 and 2016 were selected for content analysis by the Descending Hierarchical Classification (CHD) with the support of the Iramuteq Software. The results showed that 90% of these adults were over 30 years old; as for education, 50% did not complete elementary school; 10% attended incomplete high school and 30% managed to complete high school, of these participants only 10% had access to incomplete higher education. All participants experienced situations of violence throughout their life trajectories, and regarding the degree of severity of the sexual assault committed, 40% of the authors assumed the practice with hands on; 40% did not assume such aggression, and 20% of these declared that they do not remember the act for which they are serving their sentence. The perception of these adults about childhood, adolescence and sexual violence appears directly linked to the experiences of these participants in the different stages of their development, in addition to not disassociating this form of aggression from the use of physical force. Study II aimed to investigate the relationship between the perceptions of adolescents who perpetrate sexual aggression against children and adolescents about childhood, adolescence and sexual violence and the biopsychosocial characteristics of this age group (12 to 18 years old), which brings together adolescents who respond in court for an analogous offense to the rape of a vulnerable person and who were in compliance with a socio-educational measure. Four (N=4) participants were reached for content analysis of the interviews transcribed through the CHD of Iramuteq. The results showed that the adolescents were over 15 years old. In terms of education, 2 (50%) had not completed elementary school, 1 (25%) had not completed high school, and 1 (25%) had not completed this information. As for the violence suffered, it was observed that all participants experienced situations of violence. With regard to the degree of severity of the act performed, none of the participants assumed their practice in hands on. The perception of these adolescents about childhood, adolescence and sexual violence appears as a reflection of the construction of these categories throughout the life trajectory of these individuals, highlighting sexual violence linked to the use of physical force. Therefore, through the two studies, the hypothesis that there is a greater number of similarities than differences in the reports of these individuals (adults and adolescents) about the perceptions of sexual violence was taken into account. It is possible to point out the relationship between the biopsychosocial characteristics of the two age groups of perpetrators of sexual aggression, and particular ways of dealing with the experiences present in their life trajectories. It is possible to affirm that adolescent and adult authors, despite being in different groups, were probably socialized in very similar cultural and belief systems, which can influence and direct the construction of perceptions that are close to each other. However, adult authors tend to refer to violence as separate chapters in their life trajectory, and in the opposite direction, adolescents tend to show a direct relationship between sexual violence and issues experienced during their previous stages of development.