A new report from the Brazilian Forum on Public Safety (FBSP) reveals unprecedented levels of rape and other forms of gender-based violence, even as right-wing politicians push to criminalise rape victims for abortions.
Reported cases of rape in Brazil rose 6.5 percent in 2023, to a new high of 83,988 – an average of one every six minutes. Children aged 13 or younger continue to make up a disproportionate percent of rape survivors (61.6 percent), with the overwhelming majority assaulted by family members or acquaintances (84.7 percent), a profile that remains unchanged.
Such figures provide an even more disturbing backdrop for a bill before the lower house of Congress to impose significant prison sentences on rape survivors who seek a termination.
[See more: Brazil’s Lula pushes for more women in leadership at state-owned companies]
Under the proposed legislation, rape survivors who seek an abortion after 22 weeks would face prison sentences up to 20 years – exceeding the sentence for rape (up to 15 years) and equal to that of homicide. Such a move would have the biggest impact on child survivors, advocates warn, as many don’t have the maturity to understand their experience or to recognise that they are pregnant, leading to delays in seeking abortions.
While abortion has been criminalised in Brazil for well over a century, stalking was not recognised as a crime in the country until 2021. Rates are expected to increase in the coming years as people become aware of the law. Still, the 34-percent increase seen in 2023 – amounting to 77,000 cases – is “particularly relevant because stalking is a crime that often precedes other forms of violence – such as murder,” explained FBSP executive director Samira Bueno.
Gender-based murder increased 0.8 percent, even as the overall murder rate (against men and women) in the country declined by 3.4 percent, decreasing for the sixth consecutive year. Despite this, murder remains an unusually common crime in the country, which accounts for 10 percent of global murders even as it is home to only 3 percent of the global population.
