The Federal Supreme Court (STF) decided, on Tuesday (01/08), that the thesis of legitimate defense of honor cannot be used to acquit accused of femicide during trials in jury courts. The analysis of the case began in the last week of June, by the vote of the rapporteur minister, Dias Toffoli, which was followed unanimously. He stated that the thesis is unconstitutional as it goes against the principles of human dignity, protection of life and gender equality. By the thesis of legitimate defense of honor, it was argued that murder or aggression could be acceptable when the victim’s conduct supposedly hurt the honor of the aggressor, as in the case of adultery.
This Content Is Only For Subscribers
To unlock this content, subscribe to MOVI NEWS.
Epidemic of Violence Against Women
Violence against women grew in 2022. Data released by the 2023 Security Yearbook reinforce this idea. Feminicides grew by 6.1% in 2022, resulting in 1,437 women killed. Intentional homicides of women also increased (1.2% in relation to the previous year), which makes it impossible to speak only of improved notification as an explanatory cause for the increase in lethal violence.
Not Only Crimes Against Life
In addition to crimes against life, aggressions in the context of domestic violence increased by 2.9%, totaling 245,713 cases; threats grew by 7.2%, resulting in 613,529 cases; and calls to 190, the Military Police emergency number, reached 899,485 calls, which means an average of 102 calls per hour.
Sex Crimes
In addition, sexual harassment records grew by 49.7% and totaled 6,114 cases in 2022 and sexual importunity grew by 37%, reaching the level of 27,530 cases in the last year. In other words, we are talking about a very significant growth that permeates all types of crimes that commonly affect women, from harassment to rape and femicide.
Explanations
Explaining this growth is a challenge. Three main hypotheses can be thought of: 1) first, the underfunding of policies to protect women by the former federal administration, which recorded the lowest budget allocation in a decade for policies to combat violence against women; 2) the impact of the covid-19 pandemic on the reception and protection services for women, which in many cases had restrictions on opening hours, reduced service teams or even were interrupted; 3) the growth scenario of crimes of hatred of the rise of ultraconservative movements in Brazilian politics, which elected the debate on gender equality as enemy number one.
Source: Folha de São Paulo
