Brazil's Street Kids Brazilian Street Children: A Historical and Causative Perspective

The presence of children working and living in the streets of Brazil's cities and towns is nothing new. In the 1960s, these moleques, or scamps and rascals, were known for their ability to survive on the street using their own wits (Scheper-Hughes and Hoffman, 1994). They would try to find work when they could, beg in the streets when they couldn't, or occasionally sell themselves for sex. In essence, society seemed to tolerate their presence, if not occasionally exploiting them.

Tolerance and even compassion for the plight of the vulnerable segments of Brazilian society date back to the period of slavery that ended in the latter part of the 19th century (Filho and Neder, 2001). The Church was tasked with taking in the infirm, elderly, and the young, since plantations had little room for persons who could not contribute to the workforce.

This attitude of tolerance changed between 1964 and 1984 when dictatorships enacted policies, both official and unofficial, which were repressive and discriminatory...

The doutrina de situacao irregular, or the doctrine of anomalous situations, essentially declared all persons who did not fit within the conservative ideal of a nuclear family as engaging in anti-social behavior.
Even after the end of dictatorship rule, a policy of oppression remained. Between 1988 and 1990, 4,611 street children were murdered by state-sanctioned death squads (Consortium for Street Children, 2009). The bounty for killing a street child at the time was around $50 dollars U.S. In 1993, eight children were killed as they slept next to the Candeleria Church in Rio de Janeiro. Between 1993 and 1996, over 3,000 children between 11 and 17 years of age were reported to have been violently killed. At the beginning of the year in 1999, close to 20% of the homicides committed by the police in Sao Paolo were against children and adolescents.

While the fate of children living on Brazilian streets has changed over time, the reasons for their existence have largely remained the same. There were often considered 'excess' kids…