MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Brazil: mitigating factors for sexual crimes against women suppressed

Acting President Geraldo Alckmin signed the amendment into law

An amendment to Brazil's Penal Code suppressing mitigating factors for crimes involving sexual violence against women came into force Friday after it was published in the Diário Oficial da União (Official Gazette - DOU), following its enactment by acting President Geraldo Alckmin. The measure also reduced the statute of limitations for these cases.

Mitigating factors were applied when the perpetrator of the crime was under 21 or over 70 years of age. In addition, for people in these age groups, the statute of limitations for the crime, which is when the crime can no longer be punished, was reduced by half.

Both mitigating factors and the statute of limitations continue to apply to perpetrators of other types of crimes who are under 21 and over 70 years of age.

The final wording of the new law had been approved by the National Congress on June 10.

According to the 2024 Brazilian Public Security Yearbook, Brazil recorded one rape every 6 minutes in 2023. The analyses presented in the publication, produced by the Brazilian Forum on Public Security, indicate that the vast majority of victims of this violence are girls and women, who account for 88.2% of the total number of cases. (Source: Agencia Brasil)