ABSTRACT
Penal regulation in the Liberdade Assistida measure relies mainly upon verbal interactions during weekly meetings between youths and professionals. The words exchanged in these encounters become a central tool for normalization and surveillance in the government of young offenders. Speech is used as a driving force to promote reflexivity and also as an instrument of control, whether by demanding justifications or threatening recalcitrant youths. Consequently, the youths’ capacity to produce coherent and appropriate discourse – about who they are, why they committed an offence, and what they want to do in the future – will have a significant impact on how they are treated by the institution. Analysis of verbal interactions between youths and professionals shows that three models of intervention coexist in the Liberdade Assistida measure, in turn based on three conceptions of ‘responsibilization.’
The first model aims to transform the youths’ subjectivities, considering them to be reflexive subjects. The second is based on the idea of a contract: the youths must show their capacity to fulfill commitments. The third model falls within a more traditional approach in social work: it assumes that youths lack the social skills to behave ‘normally’ and to achieve social integration. Finally, the chapter explains the coexistence of these three models of intervention by situating them in relation to historical trends in the field of social norms and state policies.
