The 14th Women ‘s Dossier recently released by the Public Security Institute (Brazil) reveals that in Rio de Janeiro state women represent more than half of victims of crimes such as willful murder (when they intend to kill), rape, femicide (murder of women simply because they are women: gender-based hatred), sexual harassment, domestic violence, bodily injury, among others.

 

The survey also points out 12 women are raped every 24h in the state. In 2018, 4,543 rapes were recorded. About 70% of women were underage. Among these rapes, 72% occurred inside the victims’ homes and 45% of their perpetrators were cohabitants (parents, stepparents, uncles, mates, ex-mates, family friends).

 

Moreover, 350 women were victims of willful murder, mostly between 30 and 59 years old. 59% were black or brown. Companions and former companions accounted for 12.3% of these deaths. There were also 71 cases of femicide and 288 attempts of femicide. Partners and former partners were the authors of 56.4% of this crime and in 62% of cases, the place of occurrence was in a residence.

 

Bodily injury was the crime that had the most female victims last year. In the state, 4 women were beaten per hour and 70% of the perpetrators were once again acquaintances of the victims. 60.2% of these aggressions were indoors.

 

One of the sections of the Women’s Dossier brings data collected through the HelpLine Call 100 (“Disque 100”). Among the complaints registered in 2018, 69% revealed the perpetrator of the violence was someone close to the victim and in 35% of cases, victim´s children witnessed the aggression.   Datafolha research reveals most women who suffer some kind of violence do not report their abusers. The survey, requested by the Brazilian Public Security Forum, concluded that 52% of women beaten in 2018 remained silent. Some of the most frequent reasons that inhibit women from filing a complaint against the aggressor are: fear of reporting the aggressor, shame, fear that no one will believe in her, they may feel guilty, fear of reliving the experience, among others.

 

Information provided by the Dossier was gathered through the database of occurrence records from the Police Department of Rio de Janeiro in 2018.

 

By Bruna Silva (UFRJ / Brazil)

 

For more information, access: http://arquivos.proderj.rj.gov.br/isp_imagens/uploads/InfograficoDossieMulher2019.pdf

 

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