RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – A more responsible approach to preventing contamination by the coronavirus, social isolation entails a situation of risk for victims of family domestic violence: living longer with the aggressor.
In quarantine, online reporting tools, official or otherwise, gain momentum. The federal government plans to launch an App for reporting domestic violence later this week.
The 23-year-old saleswoman J.M. of Jardim Ângela, in southern São Paulo, was attacked during confinement. The perpetrator was her partner, a bricklayer who has drinking problems. With several injuries, she went to the Civil Police, filed a report and asked for protective measures.
Now she awaits the judge’s decision. Her partner left home but has not yet been located by the State Police. According to her, the confinement had caused the incidents of violence to escalate.
The Minister of Women, Family, and Human Rights, Damares Alves, said on Thursday that in the state of Rio de Janeiro the total number of notifications of violence in recent weeks is already 50 percent higher. In Rio, there is now an online denunciation system.
The Ministry also released data from Dial 180, a channel for reporting domestic violence, pointing to an increase of almost nine percent in the total number of calls during quarantine. The daily average between March 1st and 16th was 3,045 calls and 829 denunciations, compared to 3,303 calls and 978 denunciations between March 17th and 25th.
But experts say the period is still short, but they serve as a warning.
The Ministry has been asked to provide data from March and other years since Tuesday. “It is early for this assessment. We are aware that domestic violence has increased in other countries that have experienced social isolation,” says prosecutor Silvia Chakian, of the São Paulo State Prosecutor’s Office (MPE-SP), who specializes in domestic violence.
Sociologist Wania Pazzinato says the time for analysis is still short, but the data points to a trend. “Moments of crisis in society – economic, political or a pandemic – historically lead to an increase in violence against women. It was like that with Ebola in Africa and cholera in Haiti”.
Other countries have also recorded an increase in violence inside the home since the pandemic began. France announced this week that it will pay for hotel rooms to victims of domestic violence and will open counseling centers after the increase in abuse cases in the first week of quarantine.
The increase was 36 percent in Paris and 32 percent in the rest of the country after confinement on March 17th. There were also two murders.
“It’s a lifelong pattern learned by men. Some stress situations work as a trigger for this behavior,” says Valéria Scarance, of the MPE-SP Gender Center.
Online denunciation
The Brazilian government’s planned App will be available for cell phones and computers, for reporting violence to women, children and other violations of rights in the domestic environment. “We ensure anonymity, we cannot fail to report it. It will work 24 hours a day,” Damares said. In addition to the tool, which can be downloaded from the Ministry’s website and from online App stores, there are telephone channels – 100 and 180 – to collect reports of violence and requests for help.
In São Paulo, victims of domestic violence can report online at the Electronic Station of the Civil Police. Since March 25th, abuse, insults, and slander can be reported without the need for the victim to leave home. But in the case of crimes requiring the collection of materials, such as rape and physical assault, it is recommended that victims visit the police station.
Unofficial reporting channels are also alternatives. The ‘Mapa do Acolhimento’ (Response Map) is a website that allows women who need psychological or legal assistance, to connect with volunteer professionals for face-to-face assistance. The PenhaS women’s violence response App, developed by the AzMina Institute, even features a panic button.
Victims can select up to five people to be reached in case of emergency through an SMS message. They can also engage in an anonymous conversation with other users – experts point out that a dialogue is crucial for women to identify and overcome abusive relationships and violence.
The App was named in reference to the Maria da Penha Law that defines physical, emotional, property, sexual and moral violence against women as specific crimes. There are five thousand women enrolled in the App.
“Isolation will be another weapon that the aggressor will use to distance the victims from their shelter, information or help networks. We are developing strategies to connect with them. We may be physically distant, but never isolated,” says journalist Marilia Taufic, founder of PenhaS.
Domestic violence can be psychological (threat, embarrassment, humiliation), property (control of money, destruction of assets) and moral (slander and intimate life exposed without consent).
Source: O Estado de S. Paulo
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