Racial disparities in the enjoyment of the right to full protection of children and adolescents in Brazil (2019-2021): a legal-quantitative approach

Abstract

The formal recognition of the right to full protection of children and adolescents by the Constitution and the Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA) does not imply the practical implementation of this right, nor that its legal effectiveness is racially equitable. The study aims to give quantitative expression to racial disparities in the empirical enjoyment of the right to full protection. The research time frame comprises the years between 2019 and 2021 and data are referred to Brazil. Variables related to aspects of full protection are considered, such as the number of homicides, police fatalities, deaths from preventable causes, low birth weight, low per capita household income, and enrollment in daycare centers and primary education, based on aggregate data made available by IBGE, UNICEF, Fundação Abrinq, the Brazilian Public Security Forum, and the Ministry of Health. The main finding is that the race/color of the child and adolescent mattered for the enjoyment of the right to full protection in the analyzed section. Racially biased police lethality concerning black children and adolescents was the aspect with the highest deterioration in the period studied. The highest decrease in racial bias observed was in the incidence of children and adolescents up to 14 years of age with per capita household income of up to ¼ of the minimum wage, which, however, remains with a strong bias. Among the variables considered, there was only no relevant racial bias in live births with low birth weight. The findings challenge the arguments that there would be a deracialized childhood/adolescence in Brazil and point to the need to explicitly consider race when designing public policies aimed at childhood and adolescence.