Défi :

En 1983, le Conseil du statut de la femme de l'État de Sao Paulo a mis en lumière le fait qu'un grand nombre de Brésiliennes étaient victimes de violence, alors que leurs agresseurs échappaient aux sanctions à cause d'un faible niveau de dénonciation chronique et du laxisme des autorités policières.

Description :

La réponse à ce problème a été la création de postes de police entièrement composés de femmes afin de réduire et de prévenir la violence envers les femmes en poursuivant les délinquants en justice et en offrant des services de soutien aux victimes. Mis sur pied à partir de 1985 à Sao Paulo (env. 15,8 millions d'habitants), les nouveaux postes de police ont été habilités à enquêter et à combattre ces crimes par les moyens suivants : s'occuper des victimes, rédiger des rapports officiels sur les plaintes déposées et des rapports d'enquête détaillés et tenter de décourager la violence des hommes envers les femmes; et  fournir aux femmes victimes de violence des services de soutien social et psychologique, des refuges d'urgence -lorsque c'est nécessaire - et organiser des cours pour les partenaires violents afin de les amener à respecter le droit des femmes à la sécurité.

Impacts :

Les cas de violence contre les femmes rapportés au premier poste de police féminin mis sur pied à Sao Paulo sont passés de 2 000 en 1985 à plus de 7 000 en 1989; et en raison de la nature même de la violence contre les femmes, il est difficile d'attribuer des changements à la mise en place de postes de police. Cependant, dans les deux années (1987-1989) qui ont suivi l'ouverture de tels postes à Rio de Janeiro, les cas de menaces contre les femmes rapportés ont diminué de 63 % et les cas de viols rapportés ont baissé de 37 %. 

Ces réductions n’ont pas encore été vérifiées par des preuves scientifiques.

Partenaires majeurs et financement additionnel :

Le Conseil du statut de la femme de l'État de Sao Paulo a dirigé cette initiative avec l'aide de l'Association du Barreau brésilien et divers groupes de femmes non-gouvernementaux;  bien que le gouvernement de l'État ait versé la plus grande partie des fonds, l'administration municipale a fourni des locaux et des ressources humaines.

Nouveaux apprentissages :

Les mères brésiliennes ont souvent invité leurs filles victimes d'abus à retourner auprès de leurs maris avec le proverbe "ruim com ele, pior sem ele " (Ça va mal avec lui, mais ce sera pire sans lui). Cela souligne le pressant besoin d'une intervention. La création de 70 postes de police composés de femmes à travers de Brésil démontre l'appui des autorités policières à ce programme.

Sources :

ELUF, L.N. "A New Approach to Law Enforcement: The Special Women's Police Stations in Brazil",
dans M. Schuler (dir.), Freedom from Violence : Women's Strategies From Around the World. New York.
Fonds des Nations-Unies pour le développement de la femme (UNIFEM), 1992.

Jornal Do Brasil. "Trabalho das assistenstes foi pionero",
Jornal Do Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, 8 mars 1991, p. 6.

As a result of the developments in the political arena and in public awareness, a unique police institution has come into being in Brazil-the Women's Special Police Station, or Delegacias de Mulheres (DEAM).

In 1982, when the first democratic elections were held, a liberal (center-left) governor was elected in the State of São Paulo. His administration helped create the first specialized spaces to attend to women victims of gender violence.

In the course of the struggle against the military regime, free elections in 1982 brought to power a few radical and several progressive politicians who opened spaces and created new public policies which supported victims of gender crimes. In the 1980s, SOS, together with the State Council on Women's Rights, helped to create a program for Women's Special Police Stations, which rapidly expanded throughout the country. At the beginning, SOS members actually participated in the training of the male and female officers of the special police.

According to Rita Andrea - one of SOS-Mulher's creators and one of its last full-time activists - it was their own mistake to think that the needs of women would be fulfilled by the creation of the Special Stations or any other institution run by the State. As the Special Stations proliferated, most of the activists involved in SOS-Mulher at that time moved on to different endeavors and SOS groups were deactivated.

The original proposal requested separate police precincts staffed by policewomen and social workers, offering psychological counseling and legal aid. Batterers and rapists would not be incarcerated at the same location as their victims. Women's rights would be included as a discipline in the curriculum of the Police Academy and women experts would be part of teams investigating gender crimes.

The state's Medical-Legal Institutes (IMLs) are the only medical institutions in the country which are allowed to perform forensic medical exams. Feminists have for years sought the acceptance of reports from the doctor who first examines a victim of domestic violence or sexual assault. Especially for rural women, the distance and stress of having to undergo such procedures more than once often discourage victims from reporting the crime.

In 1985, after a long political battle within the city government and within the police force itself, the first Women's Special Police Station was finally created in the city of São Paulo. In the following five years more than 150 delegacias opened in Brazil. Most of them were in separate precincts, but a few were staffed by women officers only. All operate on meager resources and minimally trained personnel. In January 1997 the Central Women's Station in Rio de Janeiro had no funds to fuel its only working vehicle and could not afford ribbons for their old mechanical typewriters. The State Councils and various women's groups have sporadically tried to fill in the gap.

From the start, women officers were reluctant to work in a Women's Special Police Station because of discrimination and their own internalized sexism. Originally, with the support of women's organizations and the State Councils on Women's Rights, police officers, men and women assigned to work in DEAMs, were trained in the philosophy and principles of women's rights. But soon the feminists were marginalized and local police forces took over the selection and training of staff. Currently there is little collaboration between feminists and the new delegacias. Victims of violence still rarely receive fair or consistent treatment.