Violência de gênero e pacificação: entre as leis do Comando e o comando das Leis

Abstract

This thesis discusses gender violence taking place in areas of armed conflict in Rio de Janeiro where the State's intervention is usually restricted to fighting organized crime. The particular traits of each favela assign to the customary violence against women diacritical traits that at once obliterate legal forms of confronting aggression and create singular alternatives for responding to it. The Pacifying Police Units (UPPs) seek to reconfigure the powers, authority figures and rules that govern favelas, removing old barriers to justice and to the State, at least in theory. In this changing setting, I seek to investigate native perceptions of gender violence, the actors involved and the strategies women use in an attempt to stop their partners' aggressions in four pacified communities: Complexo do Alemão, Morro da Formiga, Chapéu Mangueira and Babilônia. Through fieldwork and in-depth interviews with favela inhabitants and police officers from the UPPs, I was able to reconstruct the situation that preceded the UPPs' arrival and the changes in social dynamics they brought on. The research shows that public policies can have unintended effects and interfere in individuals' private lives. I also point out that although the favelas show similarities, their irreducible specificities generate different results when subjected to certain policies. Finally, I discuss the gender asymmetries that take on particular shape within the circumstances of urban armed conflict. These asymmetries then aggravate female vulnerability within the health field. This study's objective is to understand and reveal the paths that the attempts to stop gender violence have taken in some pacified favelas.