Social Scenarios of Violent Deaths of Women in Brazil

This work proposes an analysis of the social scenarios of violent deaths of women in Brazil from 2015 onwards, the year in which the Femicide Law was enacted in the country, increasing the penalty for homicides committed due to domestic and family violence against women and when violence is based on gender. Several reports produced in the country and the monitoring of indicators have shown an increase in women's death rates, even after the Law, which encourages us to delve deeper into the social scenarios in which this violence occurs, as well as the impact that policies public initiatives to combat gender-based violence have produced. The research is being carried out through the analysis of legal processes, trial sessions and news published in the media about cases of femicide, concentrating the analysis in two states in Brazil, one in the Northeast region – Ceará - and one in the South region – Rio Grande do Sul. Based on gender and feminist studies, we mobilize the concept of femicide scenarios (CARCEDO, 2006), seeking to understand the economic, political and cultural contexts in which conditions of greater vulnerability of women to lethal violence are produced or facilitated.
The study has made it possible to understand not only traditional femicide scenarios or unique scenarios, such as those related to violence perpetrated by an intimate partner, but also cases in which there are intertwined scenarios between gangs and criminal collectives, scenarios linked to the victims' professional occupations, family relations and connectional femicides. These results contribute to understanding the complexity and diversity of scenarios where violent deaths of women occur, enabling a more qualified reflection on their ways of coping.