Abusos sexuais entre menores

: da escolha das medidas tutelares educativas à luz de uma visão interdisciplinar

Abstract

Currently, the accepted worldwide concept of ‘child’ includes every human being under eighteen years old, however until the moment the child reaches the civil adulthood goes through different stages of development, with different levels of physical maturity, cognitive and emotional. Only with this awareness present we can understand the phenomenon of sexual violence among minors. In Portuguese legal order, the age of the criminal liability is fixed at the age of sixteen years old, being reserved the State intervention among minors who practice qualified facts by the criminal law as a crime to the Educational Guardianship Law – Law n.166/99, of the 14th of September. This way, the Guardinanship intervention aims at the ‘education of the minor to the right and insertion, in a dignified and responsible way, in the community life’1, for this reason, should be applied Educational Guardian Measure most adequate to the fulfilment of the educational purpose in the specific case. Sexual Violence stopped being exclusive to the adult population and therefore started to be the target of great preoccupation and investigation. The characteristics and specifications of the minor sexual offender require a specialized, specific and early psichological intervention, and therefore, should be integrated in the Educational Guardianship Intervention. Only with joint efforts one can reach the potential success in the recurrence of the minor.

Date of Award	23 Sept 2020
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Maria da Conceição Cunha (Supervisor) & Ricardo Barroso (Co-Supervisor)