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ORIGINAL
PROFILE OF THE WOMAN VICTIM OF GENDER
VIOLENCE: A DOCUMENTAL STUDY
PERFIL DA MULHER VÍTIMA DE VIOLÊNCIA DE
GÊNERO: UM ESTUDO DOCUMENTAL

Patrícia Pereira Tavares de Alcântara1

Aretha Feitosa de Araújo2
Antonio Germane Alves Pinto3
Maria Regilânia Lopes Moreira4
Mirna Neyara Alexandre de Sá Barreto Marinho 5
João Paulo Xavier Silva6
Maria Andréia da Costa Facundo7
RESUMO
A violência contra a mulher se configura como um dos principais problemas relacionados à violação dos direitos humanos,
responsável por danos pessoais, sociais, econômicos, políticos e familiares. Objetivou-se conhecer o perfil das mulheres
vítimas de violência. Pesquisa documental de abordagem quantitativa realizada em abril de 2015 a partir dos registros
fornecidos pela Delegacia de Defesa da Mulher do município de Crato, Ceará, que apontaram um quantitativo de 49
mulheres que realizaram denúncias de violência. Utilizou-se gráficos de colunas verticais no programa Microsoft Excel
2013. Respeitaram-se os aspectos éticos relacionados às pesquisas com seres humanos. As denunciantes apresentavam
faixa etária entre 30 a 40 anos, residiam no município de Crato e predominantemente possuíam filho único, eram
solteiras, exerciam atividades domésticas e possuíam o ensino fundamental. De acordo com a análise realizada, a
violência se inicia de forma psicológica e posteriormente se torna física, e que os achados apresentam consonância com
o perfil do restante do país. Para tanto, evidenciou-se a necessidade de um maior envolvimento social na redução da
magnitude deste problema que atinge mulheres independentemente do contexto, porém, no município investigado, há
bastante relação com o baixo índice de educação e a falta de renda, demonstrando que o machismo ainda impera na
sociedade contemporânea.
Palavras chaves: Violência contra a mulher. Violência de gênero. Perfil das mulheres.

ABSTRACT
Violence against women is one of the main problems related to human rights violations, responsible for personal, social,
economic, political and family damage. The objective was to know the profile of women victims of violence. Documental
research with quantitative approach conducted in April 2015 from the records provided by the Women's Defense Police
Station of the city of Crato, Ceará, which indicated a number of 49 women who reported violence denunciations. Vertical
column charts were used in the Microsoft Excel 2013 program. The ethical aspects related to human researches were
respected. The complainants were between 30 and 40 years old, lived in the city of Crato and predominantly had only one
child, were single, exercised domestic activities and had primary education. According to the analysis, the violence begins
psychologically and, later, becomes physical, and that the findings are in line with the profile of the rest of the country.
Therefore, there is need for a greater social involvement to reduce the magnitude of this problem that affects women
regardless of context, however, in the investigated municipality, there is a relation with the low level of education and the
lack of income, demonstrating that chauvinism still prevails in contemporary society.
Key words: Violence against women. Gender violence. Profile of women.

1 Enfermeira. Mestre em Desenvolvimento Regional Sustentável pela Universidade Federal do Cariri. Autora para correspondência:
enfermeira.tavares.81@gmail.com
2 Enfermeira. Mestre em Ensino na Saúde pela Universidade Estadual do Ceará.
3 Enfermeiro. Doutor em Saúde Coletiva pela Universidade Estadual do Ceará.
4 Enfermeira. Especialista em Enfermagem em Bloco Cirúrgico e Clínica Médica pelo Centro Universitário São Camilo.
5 Enfermeira. Mestre em Ensino na Saúde pela Universidade Estadual do Ceará.
6 Enfermeiro. Mestre em Enfermagem pela Universidade Regional do Cariri.
7 Enfermeira. Especialista em Urgência e Emergência pela Escola de Saúde Pública do Ceará.

INTRODUCTION
The violence has been presented in recent times as an
important public health problem for all variables and nuances
that involve it, and particularly for affecting men and women,
children, young people, adults and elders and all social
classes1. More than 1.6 million people die around the world due
to acts of violence and many suffer non-fatal injuries that cause
a range of other ailments, whether physical, psychological,
sexual, reproductive, social and even of development 2.
The World Health Organization (WHO) states that
violence accompanies the history of mankind, having reached
epidemic proportions in the early 21st century, with emphasis
on health care 3,4.
In the legal framework, violence is considered a type of
coercion, a form of constraint, overcoming the other’s
resistance, leading him/her to perform it, even against his/her
will, being an act of force exercised against things, in order to
rape them, devastate them, or hold them 5.
Historically, women have been placed in subordinated
positions in society, despite the many achievements and
prominent positions in the labor market, but still there is a
disparity that is nourished by the sexual division of labor
intertwined in different placements between men and women,
and also the exploitation of ‘male’ activities 6.
Violence against women is characterized, in turn, as the
act of gender-based violence that results in or can result in
physical, sexual, psychological harm or suffering, including
threats, coercion and deprivation of freedom in the public or
private sphere 4. The issue is complex and multifaceted,
requiring interdisciplinary actions for the impact caused in the
quality of life of the woman and her child, when this is the case,
and even of the society as a whole 7.
In this sense, gender violence against women is a social
phenomenon that has received greater visibility resulting from
its frequency, recurrence and ailment of cases, with relation
expressed by inequalities between men and women, with
benefits for men by their physical strength, a situation accepted
and legitimized for a long time by constructed and naturalized
inequalities in our society 8.
The complexity of the concept of gender goes beyond
the ideological justification and symbolic reproduction, in the
construction of masculine and feminine, for being part of the
struggles of the feminist organization, seeking the recognition
that inequalities between women and men have cultural roots,
and that, despite policies directed to this context, there is need
for even more commitments, active participation and control of
governmental and non-governmental organizations 9.
This violence is a social and political problem, due to the
large number of murders of women occurring in the country,
practiced mostly by men with whom women maintain family or
affective relationships, in addition to humiliation, threats and
every intention to cause physical or emotional damage 6.
The prevalence of violence committed by a known
person in the adult population in Brazil in 2013 was 2.5%,
significantly higher among women - 3.1% when compared to
men - 1.8% 10.
According to the map of violence of 2015, there was a
greater incidence of violence against women in the black
population, representing an increase of 54.2% when compared
to white women, and the country currently occupies the fifth
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Rev. e-ciência, 6(1): 11-16, 2018
position in the incidence of female homicides, in a world
ranking of 83 countries considering the period between 1980
and 2013, when 106,093 women were killed 11.
In the Cariri region of Ceará, more specifically in Crato,
data provided by the Municipal Council of Cratos for Women’s
Rights (CMDMC - Conselho Municipal dos Direitos da Mulher
Cratense) over the past ten years point to the violation of a
fundamental right – women’s right to life, providing fear in the
population as a whole and women’s fear to walk the streets 12.
However, even in the face of this problem, the profile of
women who complained against violence and its
characterization is unknown, which is, thus, the object of this
study. To this end, the research aimed to know the profile of
women victims of violence who seek the DDM in the
municipality of Crato, Ceará.
METHODS
This is a documental, retrospective, exploratory
research, with quantitative approach, performed from
secondary sources – data from the Women’s Defense Police
Station - DDM (Delegacia de Defesa da Mulher), in the
municipality of Crato, Ceará, in April 2015, with the records of
the months of January, February and March 2015, which
representes the period chosen for the survey due to the
completion of the police investigations by local authorities.
The municipality is located in the metropolitan region of
Cariri, in the extreme south of the state of Ceará, 560 km from
the state capital, Fortaleza, being the second most important
city of Cariri in economic terms, with an estimated population
of 129,662 inhabitants in 2016 13.
The data collection instrument was a check-list
contemplating the information available in the police
investigations and necessary to reach the research goal. The
inclusion criteria of the analyzed documents were: Complaints
of women with formal record of complaint of gender violence
practiced by the spouse (husband, partner or companion)
during the first quarter of 2015; complaint records with the
necessary data to trace the woman’s profile; complaints made
by women aged 18 years or more. Duplicate complaints were
disregarded. Thus, 49 of the 62 complainants met the inclusion
criteria. The data were tabulated in the program Microsof Excel
2013 and presented in graphs with absolute frequencies and
percentages and analyzed based on the literature concerning
the theme.
Regarding ethical aspects, the guidelines contained in
Resolutions 466/12 and 500/16 of the National Health
Council on researches involving human beings were respected,
with preparation of the faithful custodian term for the DDM
ensuring confidentiality, anonymity and the non-use of
information at the expense of others, with the commitment of
the absence of risk for women involved in the research and the
employment of data only for the purposes specified in this
study14,15.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The Federal Constitution of 1988 meant a milestone
in relation to women's human rights and the establishment of
their full citizenship, because, as a legal and political document
of Brazilian citizens, sought to break with a highly discriminatory
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legal system, in relation to the female gender, foreseeing

equality of women and men in rights and obligations as a
constitutional right 16.
At the level of international protection of human rights,
there are two international treaties ratified by Brazil which
relate specifically to women's rights: the United Nations
Convention on the elimination of all forms of discrimination
against women and the Inter-American Convention to prevent,
punish and eradicate violence against women, pointing out
theoretical and ideological support of legal regulations for this
reality 17.
In 2006, Law 11,340 was sanctioned in the country,
which punishes domestic and family violence against women,
receiving the name of “Lei Maria da Penha” as a way to honor
the person-symbol of the fight against female violence,
amending the Criminal Code and ending with amercements, in
which the defendant is sentenced to pay basic food baskets or
fines 18.
Considered a Brazilian legal framework in the context of
the rights and protection of the integrity of women, the Maria
da Penha Law also represents procedural innovations which
recognize the complexity of domestic violence, proposing
effective changes to imprint not only legal, but political and
cultural development, overcoming the long social and legal
tradition that dennied women’s rights 17.
Data regarding the female complainants were listed
by age, origin, marital status, number of children, schooling,
occupation and types of violence.
The predominant age group was of women between
30 and 40 years, accounting for 38.77%.

of the main causes of violence against womenis the abusive

The findings show a greater occurrence of cases in
women aged from 30 to 44 years, which corroborates the
research of Romagnoli 18, in which this age group was
predominant in 37.3% of cases; however, gender violence
against women is present in all age groups.
Although the studied police station serves women from
Cariri-Oeste, composed by more than 40 municipalities of
Ceará, most of them still come from Crato, totaling 63.26%.
In relation to marital status, 40.81% of these women
had no legalized union, self-reporting as single. A point to be
analyzed are the cases of gender violence that often occur with
women who do not have formalized union with the partner,
when the relationship comes to an end for various reasons.
For the World Health Organization3 “... there is not a
single factor that explains why some people behave in a violent
manner in relation to the other, or why violence occurs more in
some communities than in others”. Zaleski et al.19 add that one
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consumption of alcohol by men.
The belief that alcohol is responsible for the
phenomenon in the male universe is perpetuated, which seems
to diminish the responsibility of the offender and increase the
victim’s tolerance18.
Violence results from the complex interaction of
individual, relationship, social, cultural and environmental
factors. Understanding how these factors are related to
violence is one of the important steps in the public health
approach to prevent violence 19.
Regarding occupation, there was predominance of
employed (40.81%) and housewives (48.97%). The degree of
schooling was predominantly between primary level (44.89%)
and secondary level (42.85%).
13

The aspect to be considered concerns the high
percentage of women victims of domestic violence in this study,
working outside the home environment, receiving
remuneration, and, therefore, having the possibility of financial
independence, total or partial.
Another importante fact is the level of education of
women, which is between the primary and secondary level.
According to the World Health Organization 3, there is no
conclusive evidence of an association between socioeconomic
conditions or schooling, pointing investigations that feature this
association, and some others that do not. Nevertheless, there
is evidence of a greater risk of physical violence in the presence
of poverty or inequality.
Violence, in its various manifestations (physical, sexual,
symbolic, psychological and linked to negligence), is an
unacceptable human action, especially if practiced against
defenseless beings, present in the Brazilian society and other
contemporary societies 20.
Some forms of expression of violence highlighted in this
study are the physical and the psychological ones. The first
consists of the intentional and not accidental use of force, by
means of aggression, slapping, punching, mistreatment and
beatings, and the second is characterized by disrespect,
verbalization inappropriate, humiliation, insults, intimidation,
betrayals, threats of death and emotional and material
abandonment, resulting in mental distress 21.
Thus, this datum questions the maintenance of a
violent relationship, this fact was due to financial dependence
that justified the absence of choice and that continued with the
partner not to be helpless or even in absolute poverty 18.
Related to aggression, figure 1 shows that part of
women suffered more than one type of violence. There were no
complaints of sexual violence, thus, the highlighted types of
violence were distributed according to the settings of the
Ministry of Health 22:
1. physical violence: when someone causes or tries to
cause damage by means of physical force, some kind of
weapon or instrument that can cause internal or external
injuries such as hemorrhage, fractures, cuts, bruises, wounds...
2. psychological violence: any action or omission that
causes damage to self-esteem, identity, or to the development
of the person (threats, humiliations, blackmail, discrimination,
criticism, etc.).
Another fact to be considered is the association
between psychological and physical violence, potentially
practiced with the association between the consumption of
alcoholic beverages, in which the woman resists to perform the
complaint by believing that her partner will change his behavior.
In view of the situation, when becoming constant and
continuous, the woman decides to perform the complaint.
Many times, for the women’s self-image, they would rather stay
with the companion, even if he is violent, than staying alone and
face difficulty to find a new companion that respects her 20.
In these relations of violence, the victimized women
often try to understand the violent behavior of their
companions, creating justifications for the attacks. It is
important to associate to it the fact that many women create a
desire and a feeling of hope that their partners will change their
behavior, staying in the relationship 23.
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Rev. e-ciência, 6(1): 11-16, 2018
Figura 1 Distribution of type of violence
To Brilhante et al.1, the danger lies precisely in the
woman’s illusion of a possible change of her companion, which
often doea not happen, since these women, generally, are
unaware of the violence as something deeper, with roots in the
asymmetrical relations of gender prevailing in society.
Women commonly blame themselves for causing the
violence in the relationship, because they believe that they
should try harder to please the abuser. The physical and moral
pain, as well as the loneliness, shame and the mixture between
power and guilt contribute to women victims of violence to feel
sad, discouraged, which resultd in feelings that affect their
According to Duarte et al.6, domestic and gender
violence is a complex problem, which has deep roots in the
social organization, in economic and power structures in
society. Facing them requires developing public policies in
various areas and the mobilization and awareness of society.
The commitment of governments and wider social sectors is
crucial to rise foundations for the construction of a deep
commitment to respect and equality in gender relations.
It is importante to increasingly strength the discussion
about violence against women in all sectors of society so that
we can glimpse, in a near future, the reduction of inequality
between men and women and the end of violence against
women which is rooted in our culture.
FINAL THOUGHTS
Currently, with the means of communication generating
space for discussions about the theme of violence against
women, these issues are being expanded, increasing the
number of statistical surveys, providing greater visibility to the
problem.
The analysis of the present results shows that the
profile of women who denounce is the age 30 and 40 years old,
residing in the city of Crato, with one child, unmarried,
performing domestic activities and primary education. Violence
usually starts in the psychological form, subsequently
becoming physical.
The data show that the profile of women who seek the
DDM is similar to profiles from different regions of the country.
Violence against women can reach all women of different
socioeconomic levels, races, education or religions.
However, the verified facts showed that, although the
theme has been increasingly discussed, there is still a long path
to reduce the magnitude of gender violence and make the
problem increasingly mobilize society as a whole, preventing
violent practices from hindering the process of a satisfactory
social civilization.
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 Rev. e-ciência, 6(1): 11-16, 2018

The present study also points to the importance of

further investigations on this subject, examining in depth the
issue, in its most varied angles. Once, contrary to what many
think, violence is not an anomaly of the human being. It is a
socially constituted phenomenon, which has been historically
present.

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