femicide

The femicide law concerns the murder of women because of their female status.

The Feminicide Law establishes that if a homicide is committed against a woman as a result of or in conjunction with domestic and family violence or as a result of contempt or discrimination due to the condition of women (gender discrimination ), the aggravating factor of femicide can be imputed.

A lot of discussion was generated from the sanction of Law 13.104/15, due to the lack of knowledge of the content of the law. To understand the law and its motivations, it is first necessary to understand in which cases it is applicable.

Brazil has higher rates of femicide arising from domestic violence.

When there is domestic or family violence :when the homicide is the result of, or concomitant with, domestic and family violence, practiced by the spouse or any other relative of the victim, the aggravating femicide can be attributed to the case. It is worth remembering that the Maria da Penha Law provides for strict action in cases of domestic violence, however, the action of the public authorities has not been sufficient to contain the cases that occurred in Brazil, which has led to the need to apply the Feminicide Law or , if the femicide is not carried out, the attempt to commit it.
When murder is committed by contempt or discrimination against the status of women :in this case, femicide is treated as a hate crime against women. If the murder is committed by a man against a woman for her simple feminine condition, which, in the mind of the aggressor and in our patriarchal society, can be considered as an inferior being, the crime can be considered a femicide.

The two cases that present the characterization of the law make it clear that it is not just any murder of a woman that can be classified as femicide. If there is a manslaughter (when there is no intent to kill) or when there is robbery (theft followed by death), the crime is not characterized as femicide.

Also read :Life of Olga Benário Prestes

Purpose and importance of the Femicide Law

Many people questioned the purpose of distinguishing between femicide and ordinary homicides. The purpose of this differentiation focuses on the fact that in our patriarchal society, in which women are still often subjected to abusive relationships, domestic violence and degrading and inhumane treatment, because they are women, violence and homicides resulting from these features are commonplace.

The misogyny (hatred and discrimination against women and everything that refers to femininity) is unfortunately still common throughout the world. Developing countries such as Brazil, which have more precarious educational systems, have greater cultural and social traits of misogyny, which results in more cases of degrading treatment of women, rapes and domestic violence.

There is also a great difficulty for the government to curb domestic violence, which, in extreme cases, results in femicide. If every hour and a half a woman is a victim of femicide in Brazil, it is the role of public officials to curb this practice. The Femicide Law, by doubling the minimum sentence and extending the maximum sentence to the ceiling (thirty years), works as a more effective legal measure to curb the murder of women.

Types of femicide

Researcher Jackeline Aparecida Ferreira Romio, PhD in Demography from Unicamp, collected data from social and health sectors and concluded in her research that there are three types of femicide, that is, three types of women's deaths due to gender issues:

Sexual violence and femicide are still strongly linked to a patriarchal and repressive culture of women.

Domestic Femicide :when the crime occurs in the domestic, family environment or is practiced by family members.
Sexual Femicide :when the victim's death results from sexual abuse and violence or the homicide is practiced accompanied by rape and sexual violence.
Reproductive Femicide :when the woman's death results from the irregular practice of abortion.

This last point is an important factor not yet recognized by the law, since the criminalization of abortion and the lack of medical care for women indirectly result in thousands of deaths every year in Brazil. As the criminalization of abortion is not an effective measure against its practice, many women end up looking for homemade methods and, in the worst cases, clandestine abortion clinics, which, due to their unsanitary conditions and lack of regular medical follow-up, make patients victims of homicide.

Feminicide Law

The penalty for crimes of femicide is higher than the penalty for simple homicide, with provisions ranging from 12 to 30 years in prison.

Our Penal Code, the result of Decree-Law No. 2,848, of December 7, 1940, has undergone and is undergoing constant changes due to its delay. One of these amendments was enacted by Law 13.104/15 , which provides for a new category of crime against life (homicide), called femicide. Femicide differs from simple homicides and has gained a new category, not being a qualified homicide either. See the full text of the law:

Femicide (Included by Law No. 13,104 of 2015)

VI – against women on grounds of being female:

VII – against authority or agent described in arts. 142 and 144 of the Federal Constitution, members of the prison system and the National Public Security Force, in the exercise of their function or as a result of it, or against their spouse, partner or blood relative up to the third degree, due to this condition:

Sorry - imprisonment, from twelve to thirty years.

§ 2-A Female status reasons are considered when the crime involves:

I - domestic and family violence;

II - contempt or discrimination against the condition of woman.

Pean increase

§ 7 The penalty for femicide is increased from 1/3 (one third) to half if the crime is committed:

I - during pregnancy or within three (3) months after delivery;

II - against a person under 14 (fourteen) years old, over 60 (sixty) years old or with a disability;

III - in the presence of a descendant or ancestor of the victim.” (NR)

Art. 2nd Article 1 of Law No. 8,072, of July 25, 1990, becomes effective with the following amendment:

“Art. 1st ..................................................... .................................

I - homicide (art. 121), when practiced in a typical death squad activity, even if committed by a single agent, and qualified homicide (art. 121, § 2, I, II, III, IV, V and VI);

................................. ................................................” ( NR)

Art. 3 This Law enters into force on the date of its publication.

Brasilia, March 9, 2015; 194th of Independence and 127th of the Republic.

Penalty for femicide crimes

The penalty for femicide crimes is greater than the penalty for simple homicide, with 12 to 30 years of imprisonment being provided for for the convict (the same penalty for someone who commits qualified murder). Simple homicide, in turn, is subject to a penalty of 6 to 12 years in prison.

The minimum and maximum feather time result from conventions established according to the seriousness of a crime. Femicide, as it receives a greater penalty, is considered more serious than a simple homicide. The decision on the effective time of imprisonment that a person convicted of femicide will receive, which is obviously between the minimum and the maximum, is up to the legal system and the judge. The conviction or not will be through a Jury Court, as it is a heinous crime.

Also read :Universal Declaration of Human Rights

Femicide in Brazil

In 50% of femicide cases, the crime was committed by family members, mostly spouses, ex-spouses or partners.

According to data presented by the Institute for Applied Economic Research (IPEA), between 2007 and 2011, an average of one femicide occurred every one and a half hours in Brazil. The 2015 Map of Violence recorded about 13 femicides per day. In more than 50% of the cases, the crime was committed by family members, mostly spouses, ex-spouses or partners.

This femicide data does not include rape crimes and domestic violence cases that do not result in or accompany homicides. Such data place Brazil in fifth place among the countries that most kill women.

Other Latin American countries have high rates of homicides against women, but these crimes are predominantly committed by violent gangs or strangers (generally associated with sexual violence). Brazil, in turn, has higher rates of femicide arising from domestic violence.

The states which presented lower indices of femicide per 100,000 inhabitants, according to the 2015 Violence Map, were Piauí, São Paulo and Santa Catarina. The states with higher rates of femicide every 100 thousand inhabitants were Roraima, Rondônia, Pará, Mato Grosso, Tocantins, Goiás, Paraíba, Pernambuco, Alagoas, Bahia and Espírito Santo.

Violence against women, sexual violence and femicide are still strongly linked to a patriarchal and repressive culture of women , which identifies it as an object of possession. This same culture also blames the victim of domestic and sexual violence, which makes it difficult for victims to report, who are often afraid of being frowned upon, misinterpreted, blamed or ignored.