Eight years after the enactment of Law 13.104, of sea 92015, known as the Femicide Law, the murder of women in situations of violence Sunethical and familial or due to contempt or discrimination against their condition have increased in the country. The law amended the Penal Code to provide for femicide as a qualifying circumstance for the crime of homicide, in addition to including it in the list of heinous crimes.
The Public Security Institute of Rio of January (ISP) began compiling and disseminating data on the crime of feminicide in the state in 2016 and shows the growth of cases in recent years. There were 78 in 2020, 85 in 2021 and jumped to 97 last year, still without computing the data from December. There are news of at least three more cases in the last month of 2022. As for attempted femicide, there were 270, 264 and 265 in each year, respectively.
only in Rocinha communitythere were two cases on the day December 29th and two more in the first days of this year. Throughout the state of Rio, there was at least four cases in the first days of 2023, in addition to an attempted femicide. The victim is hospitalized.
The executive coordinator of the organization Citizenship, Study, Research, Information and Action (Cepia), lawyer Leila Linhares Barsted, who is also part of the Committee of Experts of the segment mechanism of the Convention of Belém do Pará, of the Organization of American States, to prevent , to punish and eradicate violence against women, explains that femicide is a serious social phenomenon.
According to her, crime was intensified by the covid-19 pandemic, when victims and aggressors began to live together for longer, as well as reflecting structural machismo and the high rates of violence in the country.
“The violence rate, the incentive to firearms, these hate speeches, right? There is a misogyny and machismo that are growing stronger in Brazilian society. That is, that machismo that was made a little more discreet is on the pages of newspapers, uttered by leaders of state institutions. So it’s like there’s a license for men to exercise machismo in a more serious way against women.”
2023 cases
At the Women Dossier from the ISP, which brings data from 2016 to 2020, the numbers show that most victims of feminicide are killed by their partner or former partner (59%) and indoors (59%). Barsted explains that feminicide usually involves an intimate relationship, in which the man considers to have woman’s possession.
“That is, it is the machismo that does not allow the woman to escape from the control of that man. So, these events often occur exactly when women no longer want to live in situations of violence and decide to separate. This machismo takes place exactly in this sense, the idea that the man has possession of the woman and when he loses possession, he then decides to punish her”.
The feminicides that occurred in the state this year confirm the data.
On the 1st, Stephany Ferreira do Carmo, 25 years old, was stabbed indoors, in Cidade Alta, north of the capital, in front of her 7-year-old son. She is hospitalized with a stable condition, after being in an induced coma and undergoing surgery. The suspect, who was arrested, is Adriano Quirino, with whom the victim had been in a relationship for a year. The fight would have been out of jealousy.
On the 2nd, Gabriela Silva de Souza, 27, was strangled to death by her husband, Fábio Araújo da Silva, in Belford Roxo, in the Baixada Fluminense region. He turned himself in to the police. Gabriela had decided to separate after discovering her partner’s betrayal.
Also on the 2nd, Rosilene Silva, 39, was shot four times at the Cabo Frio Fish Market, where she worked. She had already denounced her ex-husband, Thiago Oliveira de Souza, for violence Sunesthetics. He was arrested the following day, on BR-101, in Casimiro de Abreu.
At the Sunday Last year (8), Carmem Dias da Silva, 29, was stabbed to death and cut through glass, in Rocinha, after a fight with Wendel Luka da Silva Virgílio, arrested in the act. It was the first time that Carmem met Wendel, whom she met on the internet. She was the niece of bricklayer Amarildo Souza, who died in 2013 after being taken to the Pacifying Police Unit (UPP) in Rocinha for investigations.
Also in Rocinha, Daniela Barros Soares, 29, was shot in the head while sleeping, on the 9th, by her ex-husband Rios Loureiro de Souza Sablich, who turned himself in at Cidade da Polícia. Rios and Wendel had their arrest in flagrante delicto converted into preventive custody at the custody hearing, which occurred to haveTuesday (10).
Coping with violence
In his inauguration, on the 1st, Governor Cláudio Castro stated that he will give priority to combating violence against women and femicide. He cited programs already implemented by his management, such as the Rede Mulher application, assistance to the families of feminicide victims, the Maria da Penha Patrol, Casa Abrigo and the Lilac Bus.
Castro also created the Secretariat for Women, which will be headed by Heloísa Aguiar. The report requested an interview with the secretary, but has not yet received a response.
Another area that will be strengthened this year is the Rio Public Defender’s Office. of Januarywho chose the first woman in office of defender general in the institution’s 68-year history. At the inauguration ceremony, to haveOn Tuesday (10), Patrícia Cardoso said that she brings a gender perspective, the fight against violence against women and that she intends to implement this vision in the defender’s office.
“These are absurd statistics, women are being killed more and more. This challenge of facing violence against women, of empowering this woman so that she can pack her bags, like my grandmother did [a mala] of my grandfather, this ability, this empowerment, is very important. The Ombudsman, along with the state government, has a prominent role and I wanted to put that on record”.
For Basterd, the fact that to have two women in positions of power and decision-making must contribute to confronting violence. According to the lawyer, it is necessary to institutionalize the dialogue between the various institutions that work in this area, in order to actually promote an integrated network of protection for women victims of violence and, thus, prevent femicide.
“I do hope that the new secretary can have enough strength and continuous dialogue with the other powers and with the women’s movements. The State Council for Women’s Rights has a women’s safety commission, the Escola de Magistratura do Rio of January has a permanent forum on violence against women. So it’s important that the new women’s policy manager can open a channel of dialogue with social movements, with other organizations in the state, so that we can really strengthen this policy and put it into practice”.
She also highlights the need to guarantee a budget for the implementation of the protective measures provided for in the Maria da Penha Law and the proper inspection to verify that they are working, as well as the production of statistical data on the subject.
“Many times this is written in large documents, in large proposals, but the budgetary resources, training, increase and strengthening of teams end up not materializing. We suggest that data on protective measures be more complete. What type of measure, what is the profile of the woman who received the measure, what is the profile of the aggressor, what response did this woman receive from the Judiciary? That is, there are many questions that still need to be answered.”
federal transition
In the Government Transition Cabinet Report, the group that dealt with policies for women pointed out the seriousness of the problem.
“In the first half of 2022, Brazil broke a record for feminicides, recording around 700 cases in the period. In 2021, more than 66 thousand women were victims of rape; more than 230,000 Brazilians suffered physical aggression due to violence Sunesthetics. The data are from the most recent Brazilian Public Security Yearbook. Although all women are exposed to this violence, racism is evident: black women are 67% of victims of femicide and 89% of victims of sexual violence.”
Feminicide data are from the report Violence against Girls and Women of the 1st half of 2022, from the Brazilian Public Security Forum, which notified 699 cases in the analyzed period. The document was released in December. In previous years, the Brazilian Public Security Yearbookfrom the same institution, reports 1,229 feminicides in 2018, 1,330 in 2019, 1,354 in 2020 and 1,341 in 2021. Complete data for 2022 has not yet been released.
The transition report points to the dismantling of policies to combat violence against women as the cause of the worsening situation, such as the stoppage of Dial 180, which had only R$ 6 million in 2023 allocated to reporting, reception and guidance services of women victims of violence Sunesthetics.
“In the case of the Mulher Viver Sem Violência program, the main axes that guaranteed execution capacity were removed from the legislation, releasing the State from complying with them. The program’s budget was dehydrated by 90%, and the construction of Casas da Mulher Brasileira was paralyzed”.
Cepia’s coordinator says that the entire protection network has been dismantled in recent years, despite the fact that the country has the National Pact for Combating Violence Against Women, involving the three spheres of government, launched in 2007 and updated in 2011.
“What we are seeing is that the service network for women, in recent years, has been increasingly weakened. They are reference centers with precarious facilities, they are dismantled teams, police stations, health care, these public services have been weakened and many have been demobilized throughout Brazil”.
According to Basterd, there is an urgent need for a change of mentality to take the country out of the barbarism imposed by thoughts such as machismo, racism and homophobia, as well as the increase in the gun culture.
“So, there are public policies at the national level, disarming the population, educating the population to civilizing standards. We are experiencing patterns of barbarism, with hate speeches, immense intolerance, and of course all of this encourages these criminals, these feminicides, to carry out these acts against women. It is not just about punishing aggressors, punishing criminals, it is about re-educating society to civilizing standards of relationships between individuals”.
