Brazil’s women police precincts have worked better for white women

It is no secret that violence against women is deeply ingrained in the culture of Brazil — the country with the world’s fifth-most cases of femicides, according to the United Nations. Folk tales and children’s songs often depict violent acts against woman, such as the 1960s song “Maria Chiquinha,” which describes a man who, suspicious of his spouse going into the woods, threatens to cut off her head and “enjoy the rest” of her corpse.

Re-recorded by child pop duo Sandy & Júnior in the 1990s, the song would be played regularly at children’s parties throughout the country. 

Measures to combat this type of violence began in the 1980s, with the creation of specialized women’s police precincts, and in the 2000s, with the Maria da Penha Law (which punishes domestic violence) and the definition of femicide as a specific crime.

But they were slow to take effect, and even after the laws came into force, femicide continued to grow at a faster rate than population growth. According to the Brazilian Public Security Forum, the rate of violent deaths of women because of their gender increased by 15 percent between 2016 and 2017, 13 percent between 2017 and 2018, 7 percent between 2018 and 2019, and 1 percent between 2019 and 2020.

What appeared to be a downward trend, however, changed with the pandemic. In 2020 there was a 22 percent increase in this type of crime. In 2021, there was a rape every 10 minutes and a femicide every seven hours in Brazil.

Improvements for some, but not all

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