Judicial environment and poor families: risk or protection for relationships?

Abstract

The quality of family relations has an expressive role over the human existence and may constitute a context for processes of development and learning of competencies. It also contributes to the improvement of social structures. The bioecological approach of human development puts forward the importance of those and other interactions. This study aims to investigate the relational processes and mechanisms operating in the judiciary environment that attend poor families involved in judicial conflicts. The objectives are: to analyze the form of interactions established in the reception of families and to investigate factors which may decrease or increase familiar conflicts, turning into risk or protection conditions. The ecological engagement method was employed. Data collection instruments were: field book with in loco observations and interviews with district attorneys, judges, public defenders, social workers and members of the families in judicial conflict. Data interpretation followed procedures of textual analysis. Results indicate a belief system which involves the professionals and influences the quality of the connections between them and the families. On the other hand, the studied families denoted a distorted perception of the judicial system, which is not recognized as a locus of Estate power offered to the population to preserve its interests. The absence of understanding among the people who are involved in the process must be emphasized, since the distance between the population and the professionals is detected by a specific language employed by the judicial system. Another finding was the frequency of few and short meetings between both sides, professionals and families. These results point towards a disconnection between the professionals representing the judicial system in cases of family conflicts and the general population which may cause difficulties in the solution of the processes that should be under the protection established by the Federal Constitution as a duty of the Brazilian Estate.