Sociodemographic, criminal and forensic characteristics of a sample of female children and adolescents murdered in Brazil. 2010-2016

Abstract

Introduction: In Brazil, violence, regardless of the type, is the leading cause of death in adolescents and young adults. Objective: To describe the characteristics of the homicides in which female children and adolescents were the victims based on the autopsy reports recorded in the morgue of the city of Porto Alegre, Brazil. Materials and methods: Cross-sectional study in which 70 autopsy reports of girls and female adolescents who were killed between January 2010 and December 2016 were analyzed. The cases were evaluated according to the homicide motive or the homicide perpetrator, and five categories were established: drug trafficking related death, femicide, homicide perpetrated by a family member, death preceded by sexual violence, and death related to other transgressions. Results: There was a significant increase in the number of girls and female adolescents who were murdered between 2010 (n=7) and 2016 (n=19). Most of the homicides (64.2%) were related to drug, while femicide occurred in 15.7% of the cases. Homicides perpetrated by a family member, or preceded by sexual violence or related with other transgressions were less frequent as they occurred in 10%, 5.7% and 4.2% of the cases, respectively. Conclusion: Greater attention must be paid to the increase in the number of drug trafficking related homicides among female adolescents when creating and implementing relevant public policies.

Keywords

• violence
• homicide
• gender-based violence
• adolescents