Experiencias de interacciones sexuales abusivas entre niños, niñas y adolescentes al interior de los operadores del ICBF

Abstract

The objective of this research is to describe the processes that cause, facilitate, maintain, and reproduce the occurrence of abusive sexual interactions among children and adolescents within the institutions operated by the Colombian Institute of Family Welfare (ICBF), based on the narratives of former youth residents, instructors, and psychosocial teams. This study focuses particularly on the psychosocial residential care modality, where prolonged cohabitation and the absence of specific protocols create conditions that can facilitate the emergence of abusive sexual behaviors. A qualitative approach was employed, using Critical Discourse Analysis (Wodak & Meyer, 2003). Twelve in-depth interviews were conducted and analyzed with Atlas.ti software, applying the criteria of credibility, transferability, dependability, and confirmability (Lincoln & Guba, 1985). From this analysis, the grounded category "Dialectic of Trauma and Resistance" emerged. This category explains how diachronic factors—such as adverse events, previous sexual abuse, and emotional deficiencies—can interact with synchronic institutional factors—such as coercion, understaffing, lack of administrative response, and psychological reactance—to configure power dynamics that reproduce abuse and covert resistance. This model reveals that the ICBF's institutional mechanisms, in their attempt to control child sexuality, end up reactivating trauma and fostering resistance practices. This highlights the need for differentiated protocols and specialized training in child sexuality.