Last year, Brazil recorded a record number of more than eight violations per hour, with an average of 61.4% committed against children under 14, according to a report released Thursday by Brazil’s Public Security Forum.
The organization was responsible for 74,930 violations in 2022, an increase of 8.2% compared to 2021. In more than one in ten cases (10.4%), the victims were children under the age of four.
Data was collected from official documents, including police bulletins.
More than two-thirds of the offenses (68.3%) occurred at the victims’ homes. And the vast majority of victims aged 0 to 13 were abused by acquaintances (86.1%) or by members of their own family (64.4%).
Almost a quarter (24.3%) of offenses against persons aged 14 and older were committed by an intimate partner or ex-partner.
“With the pandemic, when the schools close, we know that children and women were more vulnerable at home, locked up with their aggressors. After the pandemic, with the reopening of the schools, we noticed a significant increase in complaints,” he explained to AFP Juliana Martins, institutional coordinator of the Brazilian Public Security Forum.
“It’s a type of crime where underreporting is very high, so the number may be much higher than the data shown in the yearbook,” this official warned. Martins also stressed that “the schools ultimately become fundamental actors in the mediation of this violence”.
The NGO report also identified 1,437 femicides, an increase of 6.1% compared to the previous year, and 245,713 domestic violence cases (+2.9%).
In contrast, the total number of homicides fell slightly (-2.4%) to 47,508. A figure that has steadily fallen since the record 64,078 murders in 2017.
Source: DN
