Abstract
While it is true that there are less girls than boys on the street, they are far from absent. Yet these girls only rarely appear in the scholarly literature. Girls in street situations are also often assimilated with prostitutes although a large majority of them does not take part in prostitution. This conflation is a consequence of stigmatization that affects women when they leave home for public spaces, and it is also reinforced by programmes for girls that often focus on prostitutes. A majority of girls leave home because of domestic sexual violence, and most of them mention bad treatment, as well as a lack of affection and respect for their personhood. Consumption of inhalants is multifunctional and includes collective and individual functions through the interaction of 3 different factors: (1) the personality of the consumer, (2) the social environment and (3) the product consumed.
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Notes
- 1.
On the contrary, prostitution is not considered so troubling, as it is an institutionalized practice. Even if it takes place in the street, it is, while not considered legitimate, nevertheless an accepted deviance.
- 2.
The zonas are important establishments, with up to sixty rooms and as many prostitutes. The rotation of clients is important, as an average of twenty clients per prostitute was reported (see Dulce Gaspar, op. cit., p. 11).
- 3.
This author specifies, however, that even this form of prostitution sooner or later ties up the woman with organizations limiting her independence.
- 4.
The familial situation characterizing our sample cannot be simply extrapolated to the population of GSS as a whole, even if the very deficient information we have on GSS may make us think that the incomplete family is a feature shared by most of them. We cannot extrapolate this information in a pure and simple manner, especially for one reason: the girls studied were all placed in an institution for girls, having experienced significant ‘behavioural’ problems. Here the institution made a selection which ended in a concentration of cases qualified as ‘risk cases’.
- 5.
- 6.
- 7.
Oscar Lewis (1963, p. 618) actually observes that the poors know certain values specific to middle classes, proclaim certain among them, but cannot live according to these values.
- 8.
Authors like Stefan Roggenbuck (1993, pp. 104–105) and Dolly Conto de Knoll (1991, p. 141) also refuse the identification of GSS with prostitutes.
- 9.
We will come back to this point when analysing the identitary function of theft committed by girls.
- 10.
As we have shown elsewhere (Lucchini 1993a), this movement is double: spatio-temporal and identitary.
- 11.
One finds interesting analysis of the dynamic of running away, as well as on the mechanism that on the contrary would see the child stay in the institution (see Newman 1989).
- 12.
The network, as it exists in the case of the children we have observed in Rio de Janeiro, cannot be reduced to Lewis Yablonsky’s notion of the ‘near-group’. In the Brazilian case, the network cannot be characterized by any of the three identifications - spatial, social, hierarchical – we find in the Argentinian case.
- 13.
In Brazil, the children use a similar expression to indicate the consequences of a theft committed in their place of residence: “sujar el pedaço”, which can be literally translated by “to mess up the piece (plot)”. This means that for a period this place becomes unfit for survival activities.
- 14.
This is according to an educator from Childhope, during an interview with CSS.
- 15.
Aptekar (1988, p. 165) makes the same observation of Columbia.
- 16.
Artane is a anticholinergic commonly by CSS in Brazil and in other countries of Latin America. In its medical administration, the anticholinergic is primarily prescribed for “early adverse effects during antipsychotic treatment”. The abusive consumption of anticholinergics may induce “toxic psychotic states with hallucinations. The psycho-stimulant effect may be felt as pleasant ” (Rafaelsen et al. 1979, p. 73). This explains the circulation of Artane among CSS.
- 17.
The existing literature on drug use among CSS is poor. Regarding GSS it is non-existent (at the time of writing, in the 1990s).
- 18.
It is interesting to observe how in a different socio-cultural context – that of Switzerland – many addicts do not seem to have any recollection of their childhood, or a quite vague and confused memory. The absence of counter-roles offers a partial explanation of this. With other addicts, the recollection of childhood is seen as a separate world, narrow and isolated, characterized above all by a submission to the familial environment. It is an omnipresent and oppressing mother, as well as a weak or absent father, which characterize this environment. In both cases, self-image is deficient and negative.
- 19.
- 20.
The most frequent mixtures are between alcohol and medicines such as Artane, Diazepam, Optalidon, and cough syrups.
- 21.
The omnipresence of inhalants on the street renders them more accessible than heroin is for the ‘junkie’. Besides, as inhalants are not illegal drugs, they are not associated to the scene that exists for hard drugs. The accessibility of inhalants, as well as the absence of a specific milieu allowing its purchase and its consumption, does not oblige the children to leave their daily environment, the street.
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Lucchini, R. (2020). Girls in Street Situations and Prostitution. In: Children in Street Situations. Children’s Well-Being: Indicators and Research, vol 21. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19040-8_8
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