Multisystem Youth in Brazil and the USA: Cross-Cultural Reflections from the Bioecological Theory

• In Event: Poster Session

Abstract

Multisystem youth, dually involved in foster care and juvenile justice systems, have been historically the target of social and criminal control actions by worldwide governments. Not only Brazil and the United States report the largest number of children entering care systems in the American continent, they also share a similar reality: racial and ethnic minoritized youth as well as maltreated and vulnerable youth are disproportionally represented across systems. The care provided to those adolescents is mostly punitive in nature while they experience additional victimization and criminalization in their individual journeys through those systems while being funnel into adult prisons or experience continued social and structural exclusion. Using Bronfrenbenner’s Ecological System Theory- (e.g., microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, macrosystem, chronosystem), we conducted a descriptive cross-national literature review to compare and contrast the structures and functions of the Brazilian and the American child welfare and juvenile justice systems and their policies. Insights on interactions across ecological systems in USA and Brazilian systems of care as well as best practices will be described. Results will inform researchers, practitioners and policymakers working with multisystem youth in both countries and would provide a model for further examination of the multisystem youth phenomenon using a cross-cultural lens.

Authors

• Silmara Carneiro e Silva, State University of Ponta Grossa-Brazil

• Elizabeth Trejos-Castillo, Texas Tech University

• Nilvane Fernandes, Federal University of Amazons- Brazil