Violence against women: femicide

• Autor(a) principal: Rios, Angelita Maria Ferreira Machado
• Data de Publicação: 2019
• Outros Autores: Magalhães, Pedro Vieira da Silva, Telles, Lisieux E. de Borba
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Debates em Psiquiatria (Online)
• DOI: 10.25118/2763-9037.2019.v9.60
• Texto Completo: https://revistardp.org.br/revista/article/view/60
• topic: Violência por parceiro íntimo; homicídio; psiquiatria legal; Intimate partner violence; homicide; forensic psychiatry

Violence against women is considered a public health problem that affects people in all age groups and fromall socioeconomic and cultural strata. Aggression by an intimate partner may involve physical, psychological, sexual, property, and moral violence, and is often part of a repetitive pattern. Usually, prior to femicide, threats, blackmail, assaults and police complaints occur. Femicide is one of the main causes of premature death among females, occurring as a universal phenomenon with different peculiarities across countries. Several risk factors may be associated with femicide, such as: immigrant or ethnic minority women, unemployed partner or expartner, no legal relationship status, presence of children from previous relationships, women initiating breakup, prior violence in the relationship or during pregnancy, jealousy, age difference between partners and alcohol/drug consumption by the abuser, victim or both. In recent years, advances have been made in Brazilian criminal law in response to violence against women in the family setting, and femicide has been legislated upon in recent Law no. 13,104, of March 9, 2015. The change in legislation is a positive step forward; together with protective measures in the areas of public health and safety, it could provide future generations with a society in which gender differences are respected. It is the role ofpsychiatrists to act in the detection of this phenomenon, suggesting public policy actions that include evaluation and assistance to those involved.