“FAMÍLIAS DESVALIDAS”: JUDICIALIZAÇÃO DA CONVIVÊNCIAFAMILIAR E CRIMINALIZAÇÃO DA POBREZA

The aim of this article is to discuss the judicialization of the right to family life and the (re)actualization of the compulsory removal of children and adolescents from their families. It seeks to overcome an endogenous analysis of child and adolescent care, addressing the issue from the structural conditions of capitalism. It is understood that the removal of children and adolescents from their families expresses mechanisms of control and violence that have permeated Brazilian history since colonization, and are updated in accordance with social transformations and legal frameworks. It is concluded that the judicialization of the right to family life, which derives from a supposedly neutral legal analysis of the family’s (in)capacity to provide care for children and adolescents, is assumed as a strategy for guiding public policy aimed at children, adolescents, and poor families. This process produces and reproduces multiple forms of violence against this population, marked by class, gender, and race/ethnicity.