Feminicídios de jovens, pretas e pobres

Abstract

Is the penal system capable of eliminating violence against women, specifically the femicide of young, Black, and poor women? According to the most recent data from the Brazilian Public Security Forum (2024), it is definitively not. Thus, alternative solutions must be explored to remove Brazil from its shameful position as the fifth country with the highest rate of femicides worldwide, having reached in 2023 the highest number ever recorded since the enactment of femicide legislation. Typically, these femicides result from domestic conflicts. Through bibliographical and documentary research, in addition to analyzing numbers, the objective of the dissertation is to share with women, especially young, black and poor women, material that allows them to rethink the present reality armed with knowledge of the past to try to minimally change the future. The data illustrate how inadequate the penal response is in addressing gender conflict within domestic and family contexts, as it fails to consider the, sometimes eternal, emotional bonds between parties. If there is a genuine State intention to protect women, it is crucial to hear their demands, including in conflicts (or crimes) that, throughout Brazilian history, have been relegated to informal and private punitive power—exercised by the pater familias or informal social control agencies, such as family, school, and the Church, for instance. It is worth noting that until 1988, women were not even constitutionally recognized as equals to men; until 2005, they were still judged by their sexual conduct under the Penal Code; and until 2006, they could not even contemplate the possibility of being victims of five distinct forms of violence—physical, psychological, moral, patrimonial, and sexual. This is all very new for women, including the role of victim, as they have traditionally been educated to submit to men, be it father or husband, in the patriarchal society we inhabit. For young, Black, and poor women, this silence is further enforced by systemic racism, classism, and sexism. Hence, more than simplistic solutions like punishment, the State should offer attentive listening, psychological support, and public policies that genuinely enable women to assume parity with men in Brazilian society. And if, with all this, the use of Criminal Law is requested to end the cycle of violence, it must be carried out taking into account and respecting the victim's wishes, as far as possible, for example with the use of Restorative Justice. Otherwise, this woman is revictimized, left unprotected, or sees her family destroyed—a family that, until recently, was the primary purpose assigned to women. This complex problem is the subject of this dissertation, grounded in Critical Criminology teachings and the historical framework of a Global South country like Brazil, with over 300 years of enslavement and a deep-rooted patriarchal legacy shaping the configuration and application of punitive power.