Domestic violence: from the visible to the invisible

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and analyze notifications of domestic violence against children registered at the Regional Health Services in Guarulhos, São Paulo, Brazil; the limitations imposed to health professionals' actions and the meaning of domestic violence against children in the health professionals' routine. The notifications registered between 2001 and 2002 were characterized in order to better understand this reality and also to support the collected data through the qualitative approach. There is a predominance of negligence cases 45%, while 26% of the notifications related to physical violence and 14% to suspected sexual violence. Social workers registered the highest number of notifications, 46%. Based on the social agents' discourse, we identified two empirical categories: "interfaces of the violence" and "fear".