A survey conducted by the Brazilian Public Security Forum and the Datafolha Institute revealed that 21.4 million Brazilians over 16 and over have suffered some kind of violence in the last 12 months.
The research “visible and invisible: the victimization of women in Brazil” points out that most women suffer more than one type of violence, the most common being physical, psychological, sexual violence and harassment.
Types of violence:
- Insults, humiliations or curses: 31.4% of women;
- Physical aggression (slaps, punches, kicks): 16.9% of women;
- Threat with knife or firearm: 6.4% of women;
- Stabbing or shooting: 1.4% of women.
According to the survey, most cases of violence against women occur in the domestic context, the main authors being the partners or former partner of the victims.
Specifically in the last 12 months, 40% of cases of most serious violence have been committed by spouses, companions, boyfriends or husbands, and 26.8% by former spouses, former companions or ex-girlfriends.
Most women are assaulted within their own home (57% of cases). In 47.3% of cases, witnesses were friends or known, in 27% were the victim’s children and in 12.4% were other relatives. Only 7.7% of the aggressions were witnessed by strangers.
Although violence is witnessed by most Brazilians (55.6%), fear, shame and disbelief in institutions silence many victims, who do not seek help.
Only 14.2% of women who have suffered violence in the last 12 months have sought a Women’s Police Station to report the crime. This number is even smaller when compared to the search for help in other official bodies, such as ordinary police stations (10.3%) and the Military Police (2.2%).
The survey also reveals that most women (47.4%) did nothing about the most severe aggression suffered.
Victims Profile
- Young women: the prevalence of violence is greater among women aged 25 to 34;
- Black women: 37.2% of black women reported having suffered violence over the past year;
- Women with low education (45.5%) are the ones that suffer the most serious physical violence;
- Women who attend religious cults: violence is greater among evangelical women (38.7%) and Catholic (33.2%).
This content was originally published in 21.4 million Brazilian women suffered violence in the last year, says a survey on CNN Brazil.
Source: CNN Brasil
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