A theoretical and numerical study was developed to simulate the stressstrain behavior of soils and rocks, formulating constitutive models able to catch the peculiarities inherent to the behavior of these materials under large strains and structure degradation. Within the Brazilian geotechnical context, the objective of the research was also to investigate constitutive approaches to model the behavior of soft soils, residual soils and sedimentary rocks. The work is divided into the following topics: literature review; study of strain measurements and objective stress rates; definition and development of the constitutive models to be tested; definition of the return mapping algorithms for integrating the constitutive equations; finite element implementation; and simulation of the behavior observed in laboratory tests. Results indicate that the viscous behavior of the Sarapuí soft clay can be correctly reproduced by adopting a viscoplastic constitutive model. The structured soil approach appears to be consistent with the behavior of Vila Velha sandstone. Finally, a decomposition of irreversible strains was proposed to model the behavior of residual soils within a novel constitutive framework.