More than three in every 10 Brazilian women experienced some form of violence in 2024, according to a study by the Brazilian Public Security Forum and the Datafolha Institute cited by news outlet Es Brasil.
That translates to at least 21.4 million Brazilian women, or 37.5 percent of women aged 16 or older in the country, victimised last year. The most common forms of violence include verbal abuse, humiliation and physical aggression, such as slapping, kicking or shoving. These harrowing statistics come from the survey Visible and Invisible: Victimization of Girls and Women, now in its fifth edition, which collects data every two years to expand understanding of violence against women and girls beyond the limited accounts provided by police records.
Over five days last month, interviewers visited 126 municipalities and conducted 793 face-to-face questionnaires about the forms of violence women aged 16 and older had experienced or witnessed in the 12 months prior.
They found that while the number of women experiencing violence had gone up – nearly 10 percentage points from 28.9 percent in 2023 – the number who sought help from officials remained quite small. Women were most likely to report crimes at a Women’s Police Station (14.2 percent), with even fewer reporting to common police stations (10.3 percent) or Military Police (2.2 percent).
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Women reported experiencing 3.2 types of violence during the 12-month period, with insults, humiliation and verbal abuse (31.4 percent) being the most common, condemned by the study as “one of the most perverse and hidden forms of violence, destroying women’s self-esteem, confidence and sense of security.” Physical aggression, which includes slapping, punching, shoving and kicking, was the second-most common form (16.9 percent). Threats of aggression and stalking or intimidation tied for a close third, at 16.1 percent of women.
The targets of violence are most concentrated among younger women aged 25 to 34 years (43.6 percent); black women (37.2 percent); among church-going women, particularly evangelical (38.7 percent) and Catholic (33.2 percent) women; and women with low educational attainment (45.5 percent). The study explains that both the women targeted for violence and those who witness it (55.6 percent) largely do not seek help from authorities due to fear, shame and lack of trust in authorities.
While it is “difficult to pinpoint the reasons” for the increase in violence, Samira Bueno, executive director of the Brazilian Public Security Forum, told newspaper Estadão that there are some key hypotheses. Studies abroad, she notes, found that the loss of heightened control gained by abusive partners during the pandemic caused new tensions and violence once women were able to return to public life.
Bueno also cites the rise of hate speech in recent years as a decisive factor, pointing to the proliferation of channels online that “promote misogynistic and sexist discourse and violence against women.”
