Engaged juridicization of adolescence: about a case of psychiatric compulsory admission

Abstract

With the objective of understanding a case of psychiatric compulsory admission (IPC) of a child/adolescent, an ethnography was developed with institutional agents from the education, justice and health sectors, in the executive and judicial branches. The research methodology consisted of (1) interviews with public defenders, psychologists, psychiatrists and experts; and (2) documentary analysis of school minutes, procedural records and medical records. We emphasize that some researches have been focused on “teenage drug abuse” compulsorily hospitalized, pointing to a “judicialization of mental health care”. In this way, the aim was to answer the following research question: could the IPCs to which Clara had been submitted also be understood as part of this process? It was sought to show that the girl is characterized by the institutional versions as a “psychiatric-teenager” by some, and “a risk for herself and for others” by others. Thus, it becomes an “emblematic case” for a network of care, after episodes of “aggression”, “suicide attempts” and “escapes” that aroused hearings, referrals, hospitalizations and shelterings. Finally, the results point to a process of engaged juridicization of adolescence.