Families and Family Support Services within the Context of Socio-Educational Sentences in Open Conditions: Integrative Literature Review

Abstract

Legal dispositions prescribe mutual responsibility between families and the State in the process of reformation of a juvenile offender serving a socio-educational sentence. This article is an integrative literature review, whose goal was to investigate Brazilian scientific literature's state of the art on the topic of families and family support services, within the context of socio-educational sentences in open conditions, in the period of publication between 2008 and 2018. After applying exclusion criteria, the final corpus of analysis was composed of 16 articles, showing the lack of scientific publications on socio-educational sentences in open conditions. The main themes regarding families contemplated on the studies were: the influence of families in the offenders' lives, family support service, families' perceptions regarding socioeducational sentences, offenders' perceptions regarding their families, professionals' perceptions regarding the practice itself and the families. Future studies were recommended aiming to examine strategies able to include families in the process of reformation and aiming to propose strengthening of families regarding their protective potential. One believes this study can contribute to bring visibility to the issue of family service within the context of open conditions.