This study investigated stressful events present during the development of 50 adolescent girls who had problems with the law, aged 13 to 20 years old and who were in a governmental shelter. Data was collected using a semi-structured interview and an adapted version of the Adolescence Stressful Events Inventory (IEEA). Stressful events in different areas such as child maltreatment, sexual abuse, drugs, school failure, death and unemployed parents were identified, which are risk factors in their development. These aspects reveal the presence of a violence cycle during the adolescent's trajectory, before institutionalization.
adolescence; risk factors; delinquency