Spatial repression: violence against women in Sao Paulo

Abstract:

The understanding that violence against women could be analyzed regarding its spatial features opens a public policy perspective that security, health, social assistance and access to justice can be planned to be strategic depending on how it takes place throughout territory. Violence records were spatialized from the state police stations and municipal women centers databases in 2018. Although occupying the entire perimeter of the urban area, the maps revealed that, in absolute numbers, there are concentrations in various peripheral and semi peripherals districts. In relative numbers, violence is more prevalent in downtown and nearby districts. This concentration in central areas led us to assume that this violence is the result of patriarchal, capitalist, and racial subordinating norms crossed with land use and occupation as a spatial repression.

Keywords:
violence against women; gender studies; urban space