Kidnapping and Adoption: the Institutional Circuit of the Criminal Appropriation of Children in Argentina, 1976-1983
No. 38 (2009-05-01)Author(s)
-
Carla Villalta
Abstract
By analyzing cases of appropriated children who were put up for adoption during the last military dictatorship in Argentina (1976-1983), this article examines the institutional machinery, bureaucratic routines, and the prevailing social feelings during those years with regard to these adoptions. It describes and contextualizes the values associated with adoption, the narratives about child abandonment, and the everyday procedures and practices that formed the environment in which the criminal appropriation of children was normalized and attempted to be made legal.
Keywords:
Adoption, appropriation of Children, justice, campo de la minoridad, Argentine Military Dictatorship