About 70% of Brazilians believe impunity perpetuates sexual violence

The expectation of impunity is the main motive behind men's sexual violence against women, according to 76% of women and 67% of men heard in a survey published by Instituto Patrícia Galvão, a non-profit organisation on the right to communicate and women's rights in Brazil.

“The archaic views of the entire public security establishment lead to the perpetrators of violence not being convicted. Indeed, part of the judicial system still fails to understand the gravity of sexual violence in Brazilian society,” said Jacira Melo, Executive Director of Instituto Patricia Galvão. In her view, failure to punish sexual violence means Brazil is lagging behind.

In the survey conducted by Instituto Locomotiva, 59% of respondents said they believe victims of sexual violence who report on their abusers do not get the support they need. For 54%, the victims even lack State support to speak up.

According to Jacira Melo, the public security establishment blames women and seeks out justification narratives. “Most often what public security agents do is ask questions about where the victim was or what she was wearing. If you are looking for reasons, it turns out you are—socially speaking—consenting to the violations,” she pointed out.

Melo instanced a gang rape scandal in Rio that shocked Brazil and the world in May. “The first police commissioner the victim reported the case to said it wasn't gang rape because the girl was partying at a carioca funk night out. This is just one of many examples of victim blaming. Studies show that next to 10% of women pluck up the courage to go to a police station to report. And even these 10% are not listened to with the due rigour of the law—they are often disdained, or sexual violence is treated as a minor offence,” she complained.

Women victims

The survey further showed that 39% of women interviewed report having experienced some form of sexual violence. Based on the sample, it can be estimated that 30 million Brazilian women have been victims of sexual violence.

Many women and men are not aware of all the features of sexual violence: only 11% of women spontaneously reported having experienced sexual violence in some form, but that number jumped to 39% when the respondents were presented with a list of situations of sexual violence. Among men, only 2% spontaneously admitted to having committed sexual violence, but when they were presented with the same list, 18% admitted they had committed abuse.

According to Patrícia Galvão's director, one of the purposes of the survey was to raise the issue for discussion. “We need to talk more about sexual violence. A surprising number of people said most rapes happen at [the victims'] home and are committed by someone they [the victim] know. This means the old notion that rape happens in dark alleys and is committed by non-white sex maniacs is still prevalent,” she said.

Education with no sexism

There's a saying in Brazil that goes something like, “hold your nannies—my goat is at large,” built on an underlying view that women are entirely responsible for their own safety whereas men cannot control their sexual instincts.

Jacira Melo says this saying may become a thing of the past, as 96% of respondents in the survey agree that man should be taught to respect women rather than women being educated to fear men. “Old attitudes about the place of men and women still exist in our society, and this turns out to be a major incentive for sexual violence,” she said.

“There are daily reports of girls facing sexual violence at universities, at schools, i.e. at civilising settings. That's because the boys feel at ease about it and don't respect women. So we have to educate them—among family, at schools, on the media—to help educate the society so women will no longer have to stand this violence,” she went on.

The survey also showed that 74% of respondents agree that the media endorse disrespectful behaviour towards women. “That is especially true of advertising, where women are most often shown as sex objects. This has a perverse effect on the younger generations. The media do disservice and could contribute to this [mis]education,” Melo warned.

Abortion rights

Seventy-five percent of respondents in the survey agreed women should have a right to legal abortion if they get pregnant through rape. Ninety-six percent were in favour of the governmment providing morning-after pills to rape victims. Both policies are already in place in Brazil.

The survey “Violência Sexual – Percepções e comportamentos sobre violência sexual no Brasil” heard 1,000 men and women aged 18 years or older in 70 municipalities in the five regions of Brazil in July 6-19, 2016. The survey was a collaboration with the Secretariat of Policies for Women and a campaign called “Compromisso e Atitude pela Lei Maria da Penha”, named after the law on gender-based violence against women.

Translated by Mayra Borges