Peer-reviewed article
Differences between violence against children and adolescents in Maranhão, Brazil, 2009-2019
Vitória Evelen Oliveira Silva, Marizélia Rodrigues Costa Ribeiro, Márcio Thadeu Silva Marques, Joelson dos Santos Almeida, Jamesson Amaral Gomes et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study analyzed 10,283 notifications of violence against children and adolescents in Maranhão, Brazil from 2009 to 2019. Violence patterns differed significantly between the two age groups: violence against children was more often perpetrated by family members and caregivers and included neglect, while violence against adolescents was more frequently inflicted by peers, partners and strangers and included physical, sexual and psychological abuse. Gender patterns also differed, with male children experiencing more violence but female adolescents being more frequently affected.
Key points
- Violence against children peaked in 2015-2016 and concentrated in five of nineteen health regions
- Male children experienced more violence; female adolescents experienced more violence (p<0.001)
- Child violence was primarily perpetrated by parents and caregivers; adolescent violence by friends, partners and strangers
- Neglect and abandonment were the main forms reported against children; physical, sexual and psychological violence predominated against adolescents
- Violence motivated by sexism, generational conflict, street situation and disability was more frequent among adolescents
Limitations
This is a descriptive epidemiological study based on notifications to SINAN; it does not measure actual incidence or compare effectiveness of interventions, and relies on reported cases which may underrepresent unreported violence.
Abstract
Abstract Objectives: to analyze differences between violence against children and adolescents according to characteristics of cases, probable perpetrators, occurrences and typologies and compare their temporal and spatial distributions. Methods: data were collected from the Notifiable Diseases Information System (SINAN), Maranhão, from 2009-2019. Results: 4,457 notifications of violence against children and 5,826 against adolescents were analyzed. In the 11 years investigated, violence against children was more frequent in 2015 and 2016 and in five of the 19 Maranhão Health Regions. Violence against males was more frequent in childhood and against females prevailed mostly in adolescence (p<0.001). While mothers (p<0.001), fathers (p=0.029) and caregivers (p<0.001) were most frequently accused of violence against children, friends/ acquaintances (p<0.001), spouses/boyfriends/girlfriends (p<0.001) and strangers (p<0.001) mainly assaulted adolescents. Violence motivated by sexism (p=0.006), generational conflict (p<0.001), street situation (p=0.002) and disability (p=0.035) were more frequent in adolescence. Physical (p<0.001), sexual (p<0.001) and psychological/moral (p<0.001) violence, torture (p<0.001) and self-aggression (p<0.001) were most commonly reported in adolescence and neglect/abandonment predominated was mostly reported against children (p<0.001). Conclusions: violence against children and adolescents residing in the state of Maranhão and notified in SINAN were distinct phenomena in relation to the characteristics of cases, probable authors, occurrences, and typologies.