The insufficiency of legal protection in the face of the rise of child sexual exploitation in the Amazon:

from reactive response to predictive governance

Abstract

The sexual exploitation of children and adolescents constitutes one of the most serious violations of fundamental rights, whose persistence and expansion, especially in the Amazon region, challenge the effectiveness of the current legal protection model in Brazil. The research problem consists of understanding why, despite the existence of a robust normative framework and relevant institutional advances, child and adolescent sexual exploitation continues to increase. The general objective is to critically analyze the insufficiency of legal protection, acknowledging state action while highlighting the structural limits of a predominantly reactive model. Methodologically, the study adopts a qualitative approach, with an integrative literature review, documentary analysis, examination of judicial decisions, and incorporation of official secondary data extracted from SINAN/DATASUS on notifications of sexual violence against children and adolescents in Brazil and in the state of Amazonas between 2020 and 2025, using content analysis as a technique for identifying analytical categories. The results indicate that legal protection presents significant limitations, manifested in low preventive capacity, institutional fragmentation, and the invisibility of structural patterns of violence. The discussion points out that such limitations stem from the predominance of a reactive logic of state action, centered on responding to harm, to the detriment of strategies aimed at anticipating risks. The study concludes that there is a need to transition toward a predictive governance model, grounded in data integration, strategic planning, and preventive action, as a means of expanding the effectiveness of integral protection and reducing the incidence of sexual exploitation of children and adolescents.