Recovering bodies, rewriting paths: medicine and justice actions towards sexually mutilated boys

Between 1989 and 1993, in the city of Altamira, State of Pará, 26 children were murdered, kidnapped and sexually mutilated. Some of the victims disappeared. This case, known as the 'case of the emasculated boys', provoked great interest amongst the national and international media. The characteristics of these crimes contribute to the representation of the event as something unique, different from other cases of violence involving children that took place in Pará, Brazil and other parts of the world. This paper will analyze the centrality of "emasculation" in the crimes, in medicine's actions and in the reparations proposals to the violence suffered.

Sexuality; Childhood; Medicine; Justice and Human Rights