August 10, 2021

01:08

Priscilla Peixoto – from Cenarium

MANAUS – A survey conducted by the Instituto Sou da Paz (ISP), on August 5th, reveals that in the last 20 years, 51% of the deaths of women were killed by gunfire. The study was based on data from the violence notification systems of the Ministry of Health (MS). Most victims, according to the study, were killed inside their homes.

In 2019, for example, one out of every 4 women who was murdered by firearm was inside their own residence, which corresponds to (26%) of these victims. For the delegate of the Civil Police of Amazonas (PC-AM), João Victor Tayah, carrying a gun is one of the factors that may have contributed to the increased risk experienced by those who suffer a reality of domestic violence.

“Generally, feminicides or feminicide attempts occur with the closest weapons and objects kept at home, a knife, a hammer, a hoe, a firearm,” exemplifies the delegate, paying attention to the fact that, several times, the aggressor is the partner himself or lives in the same residence as the victim.

“What does reality show us? It shows us that it is always the man who arrives first with these weapons to take the victim’s life. It is difficult for women to have access to these objects to defend themselves, so, imagine a firearm inside each residence, who will use it first?”, questions Tayah.

Firearms licence

Also according to the survey, in the year 2018, the Federal Police registered 46 weapons per day in Brazil, in the two following years, the number jumped to an average of 387 daily registrations. According to data from the Brazilian Forum for Public Security (FBSP), in December 2020, there were 2,077,126 private legal weapons registered in the country.

“The fallacious argument of the carrying of firearms as a mean of defense for women that some people defend is, in fact, a populist tactic to try to remove the responsibility of the State and try to transfer this responsibility to the private individual. The State has the obligation to promote security, combat sexism, eliminate the causes of violence and not put a gun in the hand of each one, so that each one promotes self-defense. Public security is the State’s duty”, explains João Tayah.

Death, Color, and Gender

The study includes a survey of the victims’ profiles and pointed out that (70.5%) of the women were black, followed by (51.8%) of young women up to 29 years old. The study also showed that the Brazilian Northeast concentrated a worrisome rate of (43%) of women killed by gunfire. “Racism associated with the socioeconomic conditions of the black population, who are generally workers, end up serving as an incentive factor for violence,” points out the delegate.

On June 6 this year, the newspaper Folha de São Paulo published an article that showed an official record of 1,338 women deaths in 2020 by gender condition. The data collected in 2020 in the 26 states and the Federal District by Folha in the secretariats of Public Safety showed that overall there was a 2% increase if compared to the previous year (2019).

Statistics

Unlike the survey conducted by the Instituto Sou da Paz (ISP), Folha’s records would not define the type of weapon used against the lives of the victims, but the numbers show that violence against women has left painful marks in the lives of those who escape death or the families and friends of those who did not have the chance to survive.

The Folha material presented detailed numbers in the periods from 2018 to 2020. In the South region, for example, there were 221 feminicides in 2018, followed by 244 in 2019 and a slight drop in 2020 with 210 murdered women. In the Southeast, there were 397 in 2018, 446 the following year, and in 220, there were 433 victims.

In 2018, the North recorded 108 murdered women, down in 2019 to 95 and the following year closed with 130 victims. The Northeast region closed the year 2018 with 352 victims, in 2019 the numbers pointed 392 deaths and the region closed 2020 with the total of 404 murder of the female gender. The Midwest recorded 137, 141 and 161 women who had their lives interrupted.

Amazonas

The most common crimes recorded by women in the police stations of the Amazon are insult, threat, physical injury, disturbing the peace and assault. According to the Secretary of Public Safety, until June 2021, 9,634 cases of domestic violence were registered with women as victims. Among the records are: 2,878 cases of threats, 2,520 cases of insult and 1,083 cases of bodily injury.

About feminicide by firearm, contacted by CENARIUM, the press office of the Secretary of Public Safety (SSP-AM) did not respond in time to specific requests until the publication of this article. According to data available on the official page of the Secretary (SSP- Data), in 2019 a total of 12 feminicides were recorded in Manaus, in 13 cases in the year 2020, however, it was not specified what types of weapons were used against the victims.