Juvenile Offending

mediation, development, and justice through the lens of Vygotski and Lenin

Abstract

This article analyzes juvenile offending through an interdisciplinary approach combining Law and Cultural-Historical Psychology, highlighting the contributions of Lev Vygotski and Vladimir Lenin to understanding development, mediation, and social conflict. It starts from the diagnosis that responses centered on punishment, without consistent pedagogical projects, weaken social bonds, limit the internalization of norms, and intensify institutional violence against adolescents serving socio-educational measures. Based on a literature review, documentary analysis of socio-educational guidelines, and the examination of case studies, the article discusses mediating practices, collective educational work, and the material conditions of institutions as decisive factors for human development. The text systematizes successful experiences in schooling, culture, professional training, and restorative justice, and proposes recommendations for public policies aligned with the principle of full protection established in the Brazilian Child and Adolescent Statute (ECA). It concludes that addressing juvenile offending requires political commitment, intersectoral coordination, the guarantee of rights, and institutional transformation oriented toward integral development and the autonomy of the subjects involved.