Brasília, July 6, 2004 (Agência Brasil) - Young people who took the writing test in last year's National High School Examination (Enem/2003) believe that social inequality is the main cause of violence in Brazil. Hunger, income maldistribution, and urban ghettoization were identified as factors that aggravate the process of inequality and lead to violence in society.

The results of the study were communicated today to the Agência Brasil by the Ministry of Education's Anísio Teixeira National Institute of Educational Research (Inep/MEC), in charge of administering the writing tests. Last year's theme was: "Violence in Brazilian society: how to change the rules of this game?" Over 600 teachers corrected the compositions written by 1.2 million students and transcribed the passages they had in common. Lack of schooling and family disorganization were also mentioned by the students as causes of the problem of violence.

For Maria Stella Grossi, a sociologist who teaches in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the University of Brasília (UnB), the fact that the students identified social inequality as one of the causes of violence demonstrates a degree of maturity in the way they regard the issue. According to her, young people tend to blame violence on the poverty of the population.

"It's a slightly more sophisticated way for young people to view the problem. It means a slightly more complex understanding of the issue, since it ends up condemning the poor population as the source of violence," judges the sociologist, who has been studying society's opinion on violence for over 10 years.

From her standpoint, despite the progress, it is necessary to point out the growing participation of members of the middle and wealthy classes in the statistics on violence, not just as victims, but as perpetrators. "This is a fact that needs to be stressed, because, otherwise, we can get the impression, which is still somewhat biased, that those who are disadvantaged provoke the violence," the specialist warns.

Another point underlined by Grossi is the fact that young people perceived the lack of schooling as one of the causes of violence. "It is not so much the lack of schooling as the lack of schools, a gap whose consequences, sooner or later, can lead to violent behavior," she explains.

The Enem examination is held every year for the purpose of evaluating the quality of instruction absorbed by students who are finishing secondary school or who have already graduated and desire to test their knowledge.

Reporter: Marina Domingos
Translator: David Silberstein