The Criminal Justice System As a Tool to Prevent Feminicide in Brazil-Goiás : Deficiencies and Possibilities.

The Criminal Justice system as a tool to prevent feminicide in Brazil-Goiás : deficiencies and possibilities.

This paper aims to discuss the potential role of the Criminal Justice system in the prevention of feminicide in Goiás, state of Brazil. According to the UN, Brazil has the 5^th highest index of that crime in the world, and Goiás’ rates are the second in its country. Although since 2006 Brazil had implemented important Laws to prevent and punish gender based violence, thirteen women are killed each day in this country. It is known that feminicide generally is the apex of a cycle of violence previously perpetrated by the aggressor, mainly in the context of domestic violence. Regarding to domestic violence, the main Law in Brazil is the nº 11.340/2006 “ Maria da Penha Law”, which defines domestic and family violence and also creates mechanisms to restrain and prevent crimes of that gender. One of the most important mechanisms implemented by the law are the protective measures that the police department chief is entitled to ask the judge in case of serious threat. In this sense, the research here exposed, analysed the administrative feminicide data collected by the Public Security Secretary where the cases of the crime above are reported. The research encompassed all narratives collected by the police of Goiânia, capital of Goiás, between 2012 and 2017. These documents are supposed to provide the circumstances of feminicide, the victim’s characteristics, and her relation with the murder. Here we intend, in addition to understanding the aetiology of the problem, to evaluate if these mentioned protective measures were conveniently applied to women who died as victims of feminicide. It’s, therefore, a prevention intervention research conducted for the purpose of subsidize public policies to decrease the worrisome level of this hideous crime in Brazil.