Epidemiological profile of violence against women in a city in the interior of Maranhaõ, Brazil

Abstract

Violence against women at any time in their lives is a serious social and public health problem to be faced in Brazil. In this perspective, the present study aims to analyze the epidemiological profile of female victims of domestic violence in a city in Maranhaõ. This is a cross-sectional, exploratory, and descriptive study with a quantitative approach. In the period from 2014 to 2018, 1,395 cases of domestic violence against women were reported in a city in the interior of Maranhaõ. Given the data, it was found that violence was prevalent in women aged 19 to 29 years old (n=513; 36.77%), brown (n=1372; 98.35%), single (n=829; 59.43%), with an elementary education (n=811; 58.18%) and were housekeepers (n=594; 42.58%). The most common type of violence was psychological/moral (n=614; 44.00%), and the prevalent means of aggression was through threats (n=774; 55.48%). In short, it was demonstrated that the cases of violence against women are prevalent in young, brown, married or civilly joined women, with low schooling, and were domestic acts. The type of violence most often practiced against women was psychological/moral violence.