Children Deviants in the Streets of Brazil: Part 4

Continuation to my paper about children deviants in the streets of Brazil. I suggest taking a look at the first three parts to get a better understanding. :) ( a link is provided) Enjoy!!!!

http://www.progressiveu.org/blog/arhipgeo86

Body: Problems of Street Children
Both street children and the public face day-to-day struggles with each other. These include social, physical, and psychological problems. While we will touch on all three types of issues, the focus will be mainly on physical problems that both affect and are affected by social and psychological problems.

A. Social problems
Poverty and a lack of education were already touched upon earlier, but these problems are not exclusive to only children trying to help their families. A lack of education and being poor are factors that remain present in the average street child’s life. Not being able to go to school and lacking basic resources to sustain healthy living leads to some physical and psychological problems discussed below.
Discrimination and lack of available resources are two more social problems that street children face everyday. Although more recently efforts have been made to resolve this, the community does not take into account street children when making recreational, medical, and educational plans. (“Working with Street Children,” 2000). Instead of trying to help everyone, those in need are left behind and to fend for themselves and possibly cause a greater problem for the country at large.
Stigmatization is perhaps the leading social problem as it leads to both physical and emotional problems. Generally, the public perceives street children as deviant, a term describing the children as interacting in activities that members from society do not approve of. The negative opinion that society has about these children, coupled with their low expectations of them and closing of any legitimate avenues’ of opportunity, may in fact turn these youths to delinquency, resulting in a self-fulfilling prophecy. (Roux, & Smith, 1998). The possibility is there that the labeling of street children as deviants pushes them deeper into antisocial behavior and isolates them further from society, which in turn makes society even less accepting of street children.