Social representations of family and violence.

The idea of family alludes to relations of protection. Generally, the thought and idealized family connotes hegemony. In Brazil, adopting the idea of families would be more appropriate considering the ethnic and cultural multiplicity. However, it is in this refuge that generally involves relations between adults, youth and children, that domestic violence occurs, which is a social phenomenon of alarming relevance. This review article aimed to discuss the relation between social representations of family and violence in a space of family relations, from studies performed with various social groups composed of women and/or men, children, health professionals and health managers. Theses and dissertations, developed in the Federal Universities of Pernambuco and Bahia, Brazil, were used as the study base. The studies full reading was followed by a registration form. The results pointed the family as a moral value that makes difficulty breaking relations of violence. The existent paradigms in social and health areas that influence and establish professional actions, do not answer to the consideration of the phenomenon family violence.