The production of the juvenile’s transformation fact: an analysis of the reports used in the execution of detention

Abstract

The legal framework defined by the Child and Adolescent Statute for the detention of juvenile offenders stablishes that the decision about the period of institutionalization must be produced during the intervention. Drawing on the results of a research conducted at the organizations responsible for the detention of juveniles in Sao Paulo, this article aims at analyzing the construction of this decision in the reports produced by the institution’s staff to support the juridical decision to release the youth. The practical context of the reports’ production and reception was used as an interpretive scheme for the analysis of the procedures employed in these accounts to produce the decision of releasing the adolescent as reasonable. The analysis suggests that the three designs of the accounts – initial report; monitoring report and conclusive report – exhibit typical organizations and employ specific procedures that contribute to produce the fact of the juvenile’s transformation as a consequence of the intervention.