Brazil: An average of 121 women are shot each year in the greater Recife area

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – In almost four years, 487 women were shot in the metropolitan region of Recife, according to data from the Fogo Cruzado Institute. Of the victims, 240 died, and 247 were wounded. On average, 121 women were victims of gun violence each year.

The Instituto Fogo Cruzado’s regional coordinator in Pernambuco, Edna Jatobá, believes that although women are statistically less likely to be targets of gunfire than men, they are nonetheless direct and indirect victims of armed violence and are constantly exposed to risks, whether in cases of female homicides, multiple homicides or stray bullets.

They are often shot at without even knowing where the shot came from.

“When they are not the direct target of the shooting, as in cases of femicide or property crimes, women are often victimized because they are accompanied by their direct targets, such as partners, children or acquaintances,” says Jatobá.

Data from the Instituto Sou da Paz show that most murders of women in Brazil are committed with firearms.

Maria Mirelly Alves do Nascimento, 27 years old and six months pregnant, was shot last May while in her home in the Campo Grande neighborhood in the North Zone of Recife. According to the investigation, the suspect was the victim’s 20-year-old partner.

Maria Mirelly was not an isolated case: 48 women were shot in femicide or attempted femicide cases: 37 died, and 11 were wounded. Just as Maria Mirelly could not leave her life in her home, neither could Elisângela Cristina, 29. She was shot dead after armed men entered her house in Jardim Primavera in Camaragibe last September.

In total, 126 women were shot in their homes in the greater Recife area: 71 died, and 55 were wounded.

Over almost four years, women of all ages were victims of gun violence. Seventeen girls under 12 were shot: four died, and 13 were wounded. Among the victims was little Lorena Letícia dos Santos, two years old, shot on July 7, 2021, while sitting on her stepfather’s lap at the Cidade Universitária bus station in Recife.

Another 41 youngsters (between 12 and 17 years old) were shot: 18 died, and 23 were wounded. Amanda Rayana Oliveira dos Santos, 17 years old, was in front of her house when the shooting started on September 5, 2021, in Ilha de Deus, south of Recife.

In addition, 14 older women (over 60 years old) were shot: four of them died, and ten others were injured. Marinalva de Lira, 68, was shot in her home while trying to protect her 34-year-old son, who was the target of the shooting.

ABOUT FOGO CRUZADO

Fogo Cruzado is an institute that uses technology to create and disseminate open and collaborative data on gun violence to strengthen democracy through social change and the protection of life.

Using its innovative methodology, the institute’s data lab is creating more than 20 unprecedented violence indicators in the metropolitan areas of Rio, Recife, and soon in other Brazilian cities.

Fogo Cruzado receives real-time verified information on shootings through a cell phone application and makes it available in the only open database on armed violence in Latin America, which can be accessed for free through the Institute’s API.