By Amanda Gregorio and Sofia Rebehy | Infinis.
Ensuring that children and adolescents grow up free from all forms of violence is one of the greatest public health challenges and a key challenge for the realisation of rights in Brazil. For this reason, violence prevention is one of Infinis’ priority thematic areas of action, as well as of the institutions of the José Luiz Setúbal Foundation. Despite the legal and institutional advances achieved in recent decades, violence against children and adolescents remains a persistent, complex problem that is deeply rooted in our society.
The figures reveal the scale of the challenge. According to the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, in 2024, more than 33,000 cases of child abuse were recorded at Brazilian police stations—around 91 incidents per day. In more than 93% of cases, the perpetrators were relatives of the victims. At the same time, children and adolescents remain exposed to lethal violence and to social and racial inequalities that increase risks and vulnerabilities. Added to this are contemporary challenges, such as violence perpetrated in digital environments.
Unfortunately, even though we have made significant progress in producing data and evidence, they still cannot capture the full reality, since violence against children and adolescents continues to be widely underreported and, often, normalised in everyday practices of education and care.
The choice of theme reflects both the persistent severity of the Brazilian context and an important maturation of the agenda for knowledge production, monitoring and advocacy focused on prevention. This is an issue that demands priority from society and public policies.
The main advances in the agenda over the last 4 years
Since 2022, the José Luiz Setúbal Foundation/Infinis and the Instituto Galo da Manhã have supported the production of a specific chapter on violence against children and adolescents in the Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, helping to broaden understanding of different types of violence, more accurately characterise the victims and perpetrators of these crimes, and identify regions with the most severe indicators. In addition, this effort strengthens the accountability capacity of public security services.
We also have the data brought by the Attitudes and perceptions of the Brazilian population survey, which launched an unprecedented series of data on social norms related to violence against children and adolescents, revealing less visible aspects of the phenomenon, such as the acceptance of violent practices as a form of discipline, the intergenerational reproduction of violence, and the population’s levels of trust in public protection services.
In addition to the production and monitoring of evidence, the period was marked by advances in political and regulatory advocacy. The Brazilian Coalition to End Violence against Children and Adolescents, a group that brings together more than 80 organisations, universities, collectives, movements and networks and is supported by Infinis, played a relevant role in this process by producing reference documents, technical guidance for policies and programmes, and strengthening advocacy for violence prevention. The period also saw regulatory advances aimed at protecting children and adolescents, especially in digital environments, with the creation of the Digital ECA (Federal Law No. 15,211/2025), and the strengthening of Brazil’s commitment to the global agenda for violence prevention, reaffirmed in international spaces such as the Global Ministerial Forum to End Violence against Children, held in Colombia in 2024.
From understanding the problem to building solutions
By choosing prevention as the central theme, the Forum seeks to shift the debate towards how governments, institutions and communities can act before violence occurs.
The event programme reflects this perspective. In addition to presenting the results of the new survey and launching the INSPIRE indicators monitoring platform, the Forum will address the current context of violence against children and adolescents in Brazil, the strategic role of health in prevention, and concrete prevention and response experiences implemented in different territories.
Violence is not the result of a single factor. It is linked to social, economic, cultural and institutional conditions that require coordinated responses across different sectors. Governance, data integration, coordination across public policies, adequate funding, continuous monitoring and strengthening protection networks are essential elements for effective responses. It is precisely in this direction that the Forum intends to contribute, connecting knowledge, evidence and actions so that prevention ceases to be merely an aspiration and becomes a priority—for all of Brazilian society.