Domestic violence in Brazil involves any type of violence or abuse by intimate partners or family members against one another. The majority of domestic violence cases in Brazil are performed by the man against their female partners. In 2015, the government released a study that showed that every seven minutes a woman was a victim of domestic violence in Brazil, over 70% of the Brazilian female population will suffer some kind of violence throughout their lifetime and 1 in every 4 women reports being a victim of psychological or physical violence. In 2017, Brazil had an estimate of 606 cases of violence and 164 cases of rape per day, over 60 thousand cases throughout the year. It is also estimated that only 10% of the cases are registered to the police. Although Brazil acknowledged that domestic violence was a problem in the 1940s, the Government has only acted upon it from 1980s onwards, with the creation of the Women Police Stations (Delegacia da Mulher) and later in 2006, with the publication of the Domestic Violence law.
Domestic violence is legally defined in Article 5 of the Domestic Violence Law of 2006 as "any action or omission of action motivated by gender that results in death, lesion, physical, sexual or psychological suffering, moral or patrimonial hazard". Although the legal definition is explained extensively in the law, the identification of domestic violence is a responsibility of the victims or closer relatives.
Background
According to the NGO Marias, there are several causes to the practice of domestic violence, such as alcoholism, adultery, jealousy, drugs, financial problems, and, according to professor Matthew Guttmann, anthropologist that studies masculinity for the Brown University, the main cause of domestic violence is sexism or machismo (in Portuguese). In his study, professor Guttmann proves that, against the common belief, the male violent behavior is not physiological or biological characteristic, but is the result of the culture of machismo, predominant in most societies, that reinforce the man's superiority to women.
In the Brazil colony period, men were considered to be "owners" of women they married, entitled to beat, violent or even kill, if necessary. A research conducted by UN Women and Grupo Boticário shows that even nowadays, 95% of women and 81% of interviewed men agree with the affirmation that machismo is predominant in Brazil. According to professor Stela Meneghel, post-doctor physician specialized in gender studies, the violence practiced against women aims to keep them in an inferior position in relation to men, while men usually fell they have to "educate" women about their duties and their position.
A study from the Instituto de Pesquisa Econômica Aplicada (Ipea) shows evidence of widespread machismo in Brazil. According to the 2014 study, Brazilian society still believes in a patriarchal nuclear family in which the man is perceived as the breadwinner, but his rights over women and children are restricted and exclude open and extreme forms of violence. The women, on the other side, should "give herself respect" and behave according to the traditional family models.
The survey reveals acceptance of some kind of intervention in domestic violence themes: 85% of interviewees responded that in cases of violence, the couple should divorce; and over 90% agree that men that beat women should go to jail. The survey also shows that the Brazilian population is well informed regarding the origins of violence, 75% of interviewees disagree that violence is part of the male nature. However, There is evidence of widespread sexism, 58,5% of the interviewees believe that if women knew how to behave, there would be less rape cases and over 65% of interviewees agree that women that use clothes that show their bodies deserve to be attacked. There is also evidence of the widespread belief that the victim of violence should be the one to take action against it as reported that 65,1% of the interviewees report that victims of domestic violence that don't leave the abusive partners, like to be beaten. This assumption ignores all the social and psychological issues involved in an abusive relationship that may retrain a victim of domestic violence from reporting and leaving an abusive relationship. There are researches that propose a positive correlation between financial difficulties and violence: in scenarios of economical uncertainty and instability, the women is 1/3 more likely to be victim of domestic violence.