Recent femicide cases shock Brazil and reignite discussions on public policies. Experts criticize the sole focus on harsher penalties, advocating realistic approaches with education, budget resources, and social actions. UN reports and legal opinions highlight the need for prevention and investigative efficiency.
Femicide cases have shocked Brazil again, prompting reactions such as indignant speeches and promises to regulate misogynistic internet content, proposed by President Lula in talks with Congress and the STF. Conservative sectors demand harsher penalties, but analysts warn of the ineffectiveness of this isolated approach.
In a Folha de S.Paulo article, the jurist questions leniency toward crimes like femicide and criminal factions but criticizes the state's response of creating new crimes and increasing penalties, alluding to Foucault's critique in 'Discipline and Punish'. He quotes Professor Cornelius Prittwitz from Goethe University Frankfurt, who warns against the simplistic illusion that elevated penalties reduce crime. Brazil tested this with the 1990 Serious Crimes Law, to no avail, and repeated it with femicide, where 20-to-40-year sentences have not curbed rising cases.
Examples show that effective police actions, like those that eliminated kidnappings with hostages in the 1990s, had more impact than rigid laws. Rape numbers grew despite aggravated penalties. The bill by Deputy Guilherme Derrite (PL-SP), revised by Senator Alessandro Vieira (MDB-SE), is viewed as an 'alibi model' that avoids deeper solutions.
Miguel Reale Jr., former Justice Minister, stresses punishment certainty, efficient investigations, reoccupation of abandoned areas, and social policies to foster solidarity and public trust. Ralf Dahrendorf points to society's inability to create loyalty to basic values, something the penal system cannot resolve alone.
Another Folha piece by Lygia Maria underscores the need for realism: Brazil has a solid normative framework but suffers from chronic weakness in scarce resource management due to budget rigidity – high weight of mandatory spending and low discretionary margin. A 2025 UN report recommends primary prevention through education, agile responses with specialized units, multi-agency approaches involving police, health, social assistance, and justice, plus continuous data monitoring. Femicide is the culmination of gradual domestic violence. Without administrative and pension reforms, the cycle of deaths, outrage, and empty promises continues.
