Study Reports 536 Women Assaulted Every Hour in Brazil

Over 500 women are assaulted every hour in Brazil, an investigation conducted by the Brazilian Public Security Forum (FBSP) and the Institute Datafolha said Thursday.

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Researchers asked 2,084 women from every social strata, aged 16 years and older, to participate in a survey and report any instances of abuse suffered at the hands of a partner or acquaintance which ranspired last year. The result: an average of 536 women are abused, assaulted or attacked in Brazil every sixty minutes.

Data shows that at least 4.7 million women were assaulted in 2018, roughly 76.4 percent of victims were acquainted with their assailants to some degree. Broken down, these statistics show that 23.8 percent of women said they were attacked by their spouses or partners, 21.1 percent were assaulted by a neighbor, while 15.2 percent said they were attacked by ex-partners.

"Given the increase among the aggressors that are known, from 61 percent [in 2017] to 76 percent I think we can affirm that there is an increase in violence against women in the domestic sphere," the Public Safety Forum said in a statement, noting that of the victims, 42 percent were between the ages of 16 and 24.

The study also explored whether race played a role in the rising rates of aggression. According to statistics, 3.7 percent more assaults were registered by Black women than their white counterparts.

A total of 27.5 percent of attacks were reported by women of mixed race, roughly 2.8 percent more than white women, although caucasian women did register a high rate (59 percent) of physical and verbal abuse.