More Than 4,5 Thousand Women Were Victims of Rape in Rio in 2018

By Xiu Ying, Contributing Reporter

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – Last year, 4.543 cases of rape of women were registered in the state of Rio de Janeiro. In 70 percent of the cases, victims were under 17 years old.

In 44 percent of the records, attackers were someone the victims knew, such as partners, former partners, parents, stepfathers, relatives, and acquaintances.

The data appears in the 2019 Dossiê Mulher, prepared by the Institute of Public Security (ISP) of Rio de Janeiro. According to the file, 12 women are victims of this type of crime every 24 hours.

The ISP analyzed crimes such as murder, feminicide, attempted murder, attempted feminicide, rape, attempted rape, malicious bodily injury, threat, sexual harassment, indecent assault, obscenity, damage, trespassing, document theft, illegal containment, slander, libel and insult, apart from the enforcement of the Maria da Penha Law.

The document shows that women represent more than half of the total number of victims, in almost all examined crimes.

According to the president of the ISP, Adriana Pereira Mendes, the number of rape crimes has increased since 2015. “The situation is extremely serious. The numbers are worrying, and it is necessary to make everyone, especially women, aware that they should not be subjected to situations of violence,” said Adriana.

Multiracial and black

The study issued April 30th, on National Women’s Day, also shows that the majority of victims of murder in that period were multiracial and black women. Among the 350 cases reported last year, these represented 59 percent, followed by 33 percent of white women and 8 percent of other undisclosed races.

The age group most affected (36 percent) was between 30 and 59 years old. Secondly are women between 18 and 29 years old, 25 percent. With no age information, 19 percent. The victims aged up to 7 years were 9 percent and those over 60 years, 8 percent.

In 2018, there were 71 victims of this crime and 288 attempted cases. Of the total, 62 percent of the occurrences were inside the victim’s home and 56 percent of the perpetrators were partners or former partners of the victim.

According to the document, every five days a woman is the victim of feminicide. For the president of the ISP, the fact that feminicide has become a qualifier for the crime of homicide has helped give deaths of women greater visibility.

“It was an achievement – firstly, to bring about a more serious punishment for this crime and, with that, try to discourage its practice and, secondly, to give visibility to the problem of women killed. For the Institute of Public Security, this specific classification is important, because we now have more quality quantitative data to forward to the competent authorities for the outlining of public policies and actions to address this issue,” said Adriana.

Physical Violence

The fourteenth edition of Dossiê Mulher reveals that, in terms of physical violence, bodily injury was the crime that most affected women. There were 41,344 cases, which indicates that every 24 hours, four women were victims of this crime. The study shows that, in the same period, four women were victims of threat and at least one woman suffered an offensive sexual assault.